


Looking Glass Self

by SimplySupreme



Category: Lost Girl
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-05-30 08:55:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 41,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6417058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimplySupreme/pseuds/SimplySupreme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post 4x13. Bo realizes some important things about herself and others, and decides that things have to change; but in a messy situation full of Norse gods and magic spears and demigods and ancient Greek deathtraps, things get really complicated, really fast. And to think that all she wanted was to rescue Kenzi! She should have known that things were never that simple. Valkubus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Heartless

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, all! This is set directly after the season 4 finale, so assume anything from season 5 doesn't exist here unless I put it there. I'm transferring this over from FF.net so I'm dropping like, six chapters at once here before I'll resume a regular update schedule. But enjoy!

Kenzi was Bo's world. Her heart. Kenzi, who had saved Bo's life the moment Bo chose to save hers. Kenzi, who always knew what to do and what to say to make whatever Bo was going through… better. Kenzi made things better. And now Kenzi was dead.

And Bo's world stopped spinning.

How do you live when the reason you're living is gone? She didn't know. She couldn't feel anything but horror, and shame, and overwhelming grief because this was Kenzi. Oh God, no, it was Kenzi. Everything in Bo's hollow chest was screaming out for it not to be true- for it to have been anyone but her.

But it was her. Kenzi was gone. And Bo was still here, alone. Without her.

She didn't know how to deal with that. She'd been alone before. So alone, and always running. But not like this. Never like this. This was so much worse.

Bo wasn't sure how she'd gotten back to the clubhouse. She wasn't sure who'd driven her back, or who had settled her on the couch and given her a glass of water. Bo wasn't sure what time of night it was, or when Lauren had showed up and tried to hug her. Bo hadn't let her. Lauren still stayed. Bo wasn't sure how long she sat there staring emptily at the wall, or how long Lauren had sat at her side stared emptily at her, but she was suddenly very aware of the passage of time when Dyson burst into the shack with a limp, unconscious Tamsin cradled in his arms.

She was so pale, and looked so small. She looked like Kenzi had. A puppet with her strings cut.

Bo couldn't lose someone else today. Especially not the one person who was as close to Kenzi as she herself was. Not Tamsin.

"Tamsin!" she cried, speaking for the first time since Kenzi had… well... Bo wasn't keen on thinking about it. Instead, Bo leaped to her feet, dragging Lauren with her so that the couch was free to accept Tamsin's still form. Dyson laid her down carefully, and Bo helped to arrange the blonde's limbs into something that wouldn't be too uncomfortable for the many purple bruises mottling Tamsin's fair skin. It was strange, seeing Tamsin like this when the last time Bo had seen her, she'd still been flushed with the energy of battle and had been in full Valkyrie power mode, bending tearfully over Kenzi's body.

"What happened?" Lauren asked, already checking Tamsin's body over for serious injuries while Bo and Dyson took a step back to allow the woman to work.

Dyson was frowning, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on Tamsin's face. "I found her at the gate," he reported. "Weak. Delirious. She saw something. I don't know what, but it scared her. She kept going on about how we couldn't use the Hell shoe, and on the car ride here she was begging 'mother' to take care of 'momz'."

Bo raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Mother?" she questioned. "Tamsin's never said anything about a mother. Not besides…" She trailed off as her throat convulsed around Kenzi's name and her vision once again swam with moisture, because she remembered how fucking cute it was to see a full grown Valkyrie bend over backwards to please a tiny human who she kept calling 'momz'.

But she couldn't cry. Kenzi would never forgive her if she let her 'Lil T' get hurt on her watch.

An uncomfortable silence settled upon them as Dyson and Bo simply watched Lauren checking Tamsin's heart rate and applied light pressure around her bruises to look for broken bones. The Valkyrie had dried tear streaks cutting through the battle grime on her face. Bo remembered the last time she'd seen Tamsin cry. She'd been wildly yet weakly attacking her before Bo had convinced her to stop, and Tamsin had looked at her as if her whole world was turning on its head before breaking down and admitting that she didn't know what to do.

She'd been so lost, and so sad. Bo hadn't imagined that she'd ever see Tamsin -irreverent, strong, sassy Tamsin- in such a state again. Not after Kenzi had taken the young reborn Valkyrie under her wing and raised her as her own, and taught her that there was more to life than pushing back pain and fighting and doing the jobs that you were paid for. The blonde was always so steady. Hotheaded, but entirely dependable and reliably badass.

But Bo supposed that Kenzi was everyone's soft spot. Bo's heart. Tamsin's too.

"She'll be okay," Lauren announced in a professional tone, leaning back up and gazing earnestly at Bo. "The bruising is mostly superficial, and nothing a good night's sleep can't fix. Honestly, she's really just exhausted -I'd imagine from taking not one, but two souls to Valhalla."

Unspeakably relieved, Bo exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and slumped heavily into Dyson's side. The wolf shifter looped a supportive arm around her and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"I don't blame her for passing out," the man said lightly, his tone affectionate as he spoke about his partner. "You should have seen her fighting today. She's a one-woman army. She cast enough doubt to have half the revenants fighting each other no matter how many came through the gate, and when I tried to stop Kenzi from…" Dyson's voice wavered. "Tamsin was all around us. I'd stopped fighting, but none of the revenants got within ten feet of us. I'd never seen a Valkyrie in battle before. I'm… glad she's on our side now, and not just for her charming personality," he finished dryly.

Despite the circumstances, Bo's lips twitched into a half smile. She was proud of Tamsin. She'd come so far from the frigid bitch she'd been when they'd first met. And Kenzi… Kenzi would have been so proud of her too.

Kenzi. Gods, Kenzi. Instantly, Bo's face fell and she clutched at her stomach, feeling like this motion itself was the only thing holding her together. Seeing this, Dyson pulled her tighter to him, but Bo flinched and gently pushed him away. She loved Dyson but… the image of Kenzi walking away from her was still dancing in front of her eyes no matter how tightly she shut them, and she could still feel Dyson holding her back and keeping her from running forwards and stopping Kenzi from… No. She loved Dyson, but she wasn't quite ready to forgive him yet.

"Bo-" Lauren started in her most sweet and concerned tone, taking a step forwards even as Dyson allowed her her space with an understanding grimace.

Not wanting to hear any platitudes, Bo just held up a hand and stopped her ex-girlfriend mid-sentence. "Lauren… thank you," she said with a sad smile. "Thank you both, for being there for me tonight. For fighting with me. For being here for me now. But… I need time. Please. Please, just give me time."

Lauren frowned. "Bo, are you really sure you should be alone right now?"

"I won't be," Bo answered with a despondent shrug. "Tamsin is here and I… I…" Her voice broke and she fought tears. "This is our home. With Kenzi. We just need… I need…"

"It's okay Bo," Dyson interrupted, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Whatever you need. Lauren and I will bring lunch tomorrow and check up on the two of you, okay?"

Grateful beyond words that Dyson understood, Bo just nodded and hugged him. He gave her a chaste kiss on the forehead and walked out. The succubus repeated the process for the blonde doctor, who aimed her kiss for Bo's lips but missed when Bo turned her head, landing on her cheek instead.

"Go take care of Evony, Lauren," Bo sighed. "I'll be okay."

"I'm sorry. Just… take care of yourself Bo? If not for me, for Kenzi?" Lauren asked earnestly.

Bo blinked. "I… I promise, Lauren," she whispered. The doctor nodded, and followed Dyson out of the crack shack.

The silence that fell in her absence was both relieving and oppressing. Bo couldn't decide if she resented or preferred it to the distraction to her grief. But at this point, she didn't even have the energy to think about it. Rainer was gone, her dad turned out to be a giant asshole, and Kenzi wasn't here to help her deal with it. All she wanted to do was to go to sleep and never wake up.

Tamsin whimpered in her sleep, and Bo immediately snapped out of her momentary trance to focus on the blonde. Tamsin. She'd fought so hard, all day. In hindsight, Bo felt bad about it. Rainer was dead now; and with him, that tangible tie she'd felt to him -the tie that felt like destiny. She knew she'd been an ass to all of her friends the past few days, too caught up in said destiny to even consider their wellbeing. The moment she'd woken after the attack that had taken Rainer's life, Tamsin had been there for her, gazing at her with genuine concern and waiting for her to wake up. Tamsin had known exactly what to say in order to pull Bo from her moment of grief and into fighting form -exactly what to say to goad the succubus into healing herself and running off to save the world- and Bo had taken a rather large pull of Chi from the Valkyrie without so much as a by-your-leave. She'd then proceeded to ignore the blonde's very existence until the moment Bo had seen her frantically attempting to fight her way between the lurching bodies of the zombie hellspawn to get to Kenzi, only to realize that she would be too late. Bo had watched Tamsin take her mother figure's soul to the afterlife, and Bo hadn't even cried for her.

She'd cried for herself, because her Kenzi was gone.

Tamsin hadn't deserved that treatment from her. Tamsin was always there for her, and Bo had not once returned the favor.

That was about to change, Bo vowed. Not just because Kenzi would want Bo to take care of her baby Valkyrie, but because Tamsin had been nothing but giving and Bo had done nothing but take. And... Bo needed someone. She needed someone to lean on to get through this, and so did Tamsin, and Dyson and Lauren had offered but her relationships with them were too complicated and full of hurt to ever help her heal right now and… Tamsin had loved Kenzi. So much. Of all people, Tamsin would understand Bo's pain right now because she was feeling it too. Bo didn't know Tamsin very well. Certainly not as well as Kenzi had; but she'd always made Bo feel safe. Completely pissed off, irrationally angry, and maybe slightly aroused too, but safe. Always safe.

And Bo really, really needed that right now.

Another whimper pulled the brunette from these musings, and she scowled at the couch Tamsin was resting on. It wasn't the most comfortable pieces of furniture to ever exist, and Bo knew that a bed would be much kinder on the Valkyrie's bruises. Mentally cursing herself for sending Dyson on his way before she could ask him to move his partner upstairs, Bo rolled her neck and scooped Tamsin up herself. Tamsin was heavy, as she was pretty much solid muscle, but she wasn't that much bigger than Bo herself. More than that, Bo had more than a few fae enhancements to her own physique, and she made good use of said supernatural strength to hold the blonde steady as she marched up the stairs. She stopped outside of the room Tamsin and Kenzi shared, huffing with exertion, only to hesitate. Tamsin had just taken Kenzi's soul and been forced to leave her in the afterlife, and Bo didn't have the heart to put her in a position where Kenzi's empty bed would be the first thing she saw after waking up.

So Bo kept walking until she entered her own room and deposited Tamsin on the bed. Quickly and efficiently, she rid the blonde of her boots, jacket, belt, and various weapons in an effort to make her more comfortable, all of which she stacked neatly on the floor at her side. This accomplished, Bo did much the same for herself and collapsed onto the other side of the mattress. Both of them were filthy, so Bo didn't bother trying to position either of them under the covers. The softness of the mattress felt like heaven either way.

Vaguely, Bo hoped that Kenzi was enjoying her heaven far more than Bo was enjoying hers at the moment. She hoped that Valhalla was a beautiful place, where the departed souls of heroes didn't cry themselves to sleep like miserable succubi did. Like she was right now. There weren't enough tears in the world to wash away the emptiness she felt inside.


	2. Bathtub Confessions

By the time Bo woke from a restless sleep, sunlight had just begun filtering into the room from the uncovered windows, rose tinted from the dawn. She knew she'd only slept a couple of hours, if that, and her body still felt leaden with the absence of the one person who was most important to her in her life. She ached everywhere. Blearily, Bo opened her eyes and looked to where Tamsin had spent the night at her side.

She wasn't there, but the blankets were still disturbed by her lithe shape, and still faintly warm.

"Tamsin?" she called softly, rolling from the bed and shifting unsteadily onto her feet. No one answered her, but Bo easily deduced the Valkyrie's location from the sound of the shower running in the bathroom. Shaking off the last vestiges of sleep, Bo followed the sound and cautiously peeked over towards the freestanding tub. "Tamsin?" she called again.

She received no answer. She could still hear the blonde though. Bo knew she was crying.

Sure enough, when the brunette crossed the room and gently tugged the shower curtain to one side, she was greeted by the sight of a drenched and shivering Valkyrie seated in the bottom of the tub, still wearing her underwear and a white tank top as she fruitlessly tried to scrub her tears from her face even as they were washed away in the cold deluge of the shower head. Tamsin wouldn't look at her.

Wordlessly, Bo stripped herself down to her underwear and crawled into the tub, shuddering at the frigid temperature of the water as she sat herself down at Tamsin's side. Tamsin was very pale. Her bruises had faded to a pale green after a night of Valkyrie healing, but Bo could now see more of them than before with Tamsin's current lack of clothes. They were focused around the blonde's arms and torso, though she did have a couple down by her ankles. Almost all of them were shaped vaguely like handprints, as if there had been a great many people grabbing harshly at Tamsin's body. They weren't life threatening injuries though, and Bo was more concerned with Tamsin's obviously low body temperature. She had no way of knowing how long the blonde had been here under the cold water, and it obviously wasn't doing her health any favors.

Without preamble, Bo reached over Tamsin's shoulders to the tap and brought the water to something closer to lukewarm. She didn't want to hurt her by increasing the temperature too quickly. Tamsin didn't acknowledge this action, but she did stop crying, which Bo tentatively hoped was a good thing. Instead, Tamsin was reduced to gulping in deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself.

Bo just sat there and left her to it. Normally she was good at comforting people, but there was no recovering from this. Not for either of them. Not from Kenzi. All Bo could offer Tamsin in this moment was her companionship, which she desperately hoped was enough to stop one or both of them from completely self-destructing.

Kenzi wouldn't have wanted that.

After a while, Tamsin tentatively leaned up against Bo's side, and Bo responded by wrapping an arm around her tightly. The Valkyrie was still cold to the touch, but it wasn't as concerning now, and Bo produced enough body heat to keep the both of them comfortable sitting like this. Tamsin stiffened at the movement, and for a moment, Bo was afraid she'd shrug her off and kick her out of the tub. She didn't though, and slowly relaxed into the brunette's hold.

Idly, Bo noted that they seemed to have a habit of sitting in this tub together with their clothes on in times of great emotional distress. Which was… weird, but better than being alone, she supposed.

It was quite a while -Bo's fingers were pruning- before Tamsin spoke. "Kenzi will be treated well," the Valkyrie whispered hoarsely, sniffling and swiping at her nose. "Freya… she owes me big time. She took Kenzi to Folkvangr. She'll- she'll treat Kenzi like r-royalty. She promised…"

"Freya… isn't she like, the patron goddess of Valkyries or something?" Bo asked uncertainly.

Despite her miserable state, Tamsin huffed out a short laugh and wound her arm around Bo's waist so that they huddled closer. "Good job, Baby Fae," she chuckled, smirking when Bo poked her. "There are two gods who deal with the souls brought to Valhalla," she explained further, her voice growing steadily less shaky. "Freya, and Odin. Odin's kind of the HBIC, but Freya is in charge of the Valkyries. She gets first pick of the souls, which she takes to Folkvangr. The other ones stay in Valhalla proper, with Odin."

Bo nodded and clutched Tamsin to her tighter as her eyes stung with tears. "She can't send her back?" she asked, her voice suddenly very small.

Tamsin's breath stuttered within her grasp. "No," she choked out. "Believe me, I asked. But for a soul to leave Valhalla… both Odin and Freya have to agree, and Odin- kind of a dick."

"Only you would call the leader of Valhalla a dick, Tamsin" Bo giggled in a watery sort of way. Disappointment and pain were eating her alive, but Tamsin was just so… Tamsin. It was kind of funny.

They fell silent again, all sounds stopped except for the constant spray of the shower head and the squeak of the tap as Bo adjusted the temperature of the water again before returning to her now two-handed grasp on her blonde tub-mate.

"Tamsin?" she asked carefully after a while.

"Yeah?"

Bo ran a feather-light finger over a particularly nasty-looking bruise marring Tamsin's right forearm. "What happened to you?"

More silence. Then, "The other Valkyries," Tamsin admitted. "I wouldn't let Kenzi go until I made Freya promise to take care of her, and even then… I wanted to go with her into Folkvangr. I'm not allowed there anymore though, and the others have to enforce that rule. They didn't want to hurt me, but I think they were surprised by… well, I was flipping out."

"They shouldn't have been," Bo commented lightly, still gently tracing the edges of the discolorations on Tamsin's fair skin. "You love her."

Tamsin laughed bitterly and leaned her head back against the edge of the tub, glaring hatefully up at the ceiling. "Valkyries don't love, Bo. We're trained from birth not to, because love will get us killed. You and momz ruined me, you know. I'm like, the weirdest Valkyrie ever now."

"Maybe, but you're also the bestest Valkyrie ever," Bo assured her in the Kenzi-est way she could think of, tucking her head into the newly available space by Tamsin's neck. "Why couldn't you go into Folkvangr? I thought that with… with Rainer that… that you…"

Feeling Bo tense with the memory of the loss of… whatever Rainer had been to her, Tamsin hugged the succubus to her tightly. "All of my access to Valhalla was restored when I brought Rainer's soul up," she whispered. "He went with Odin. He'll be happy in Valhalla, Bo. There's a feast there every night, and really great bars, and you can fight in as many battles as you want and never really die. It's kind of epic. I can bring any soul I want to Valhalla now, so long as they die a warrior but… I can't go in." She hesitated. "It's because I'm on my last life, you know?" Tamsin finished as if that explained everything.

Which it totally didn't. But Bo wasn't about to push the subject. She didn't have the emotional fortitude to get into a fight with Tamsin right now. She just curled around her tighter and tried to soothe herself with the sound of the Valkyrie's steady heartbeat. "How… how long is that?" she asked, a quaver in her voice. Bo couldn't bear the thought of Tamsin dying permanently, even if she did get to go party in an eternal bar fight with a bunch of dead warriors. She didn't want Tamsin to die ever, especially not so soon after…

No, Bo didn't like the term 'last life' at all.

"Eh, couple hundred years," Tamsin responded. "That is if I don't get myself kil-"

"-Don't," Bo interrupted sharply. "You don't get to talk like that, Tamsin."

Tamsin suddenly sobbed out an exhale of air. "I… I'm sorry," she stuttered, the tears from earlier making a reappearance as she trembled in Bo's arms and was suddenly bursting with words. "Valkyries aren't built to love. I've never loved anyone that wouldn't be reborn if they died and I've never… I don't… I don't know how to handle how much it hurts. My momz showed me how to be more than I was before but she was supposed to be here with me to help and I don't know how to do this without her, Bo."

In that moment, Bo realized that she did have some heart left even after Kenzi's death, because that lonely little fragment was suddenly breaking in her chest.

Less than gracefully, the brunette squirmed around in the bottom of the tub until she had a better angle and pulled Tamsin into the best hug she could manage even as she started crying again too. "It doesn't get better, and it will never be easier," Bo choked out. "But you have me, and I have you, and we'll… we'll make it through this, okay?'

Tamsin nodded into her shoulder.

"And promise me… promise me you won't do something like this again," Bo continued in a softer tone. "Of all people, I know easy it is to… I know how much pain on the outside distracts from pain on the inside -believe me I do, because I kind of became an expert in all the wrong coping mechanisms before I learned I was Fae- but I don't want to watch you freeze yourself half to death every time you hurt, Tamsin."

Somewhat reflexively, Tamsin's fists clenched against Bo's bare back, but the Valkyrie nodded anyways. "I'm sorry, Bo," she sighed, taking a breath in a visible attempt to pull herself together.

Somehow, Bo suspected that unless something else pushed the Valkyrie to the brink, this would be the last time she was allowed to witness one of Tamsin's breakdowns. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"Come on," she said, standing in the tub and turning off the water, her tone taking on the familiar sharpness of her and Tamsin's customary comfortable banter. It was a familiarity that she wanted to encourage in this moment. "Dyson is stopping by with lunch so he can babysit me for a bit. As much as I'm loving it, I'm thinking he'll be less appreciative of the wet t-shirt competition we have going on here." Bo made a point of lasciviously running her eyes all over Tamsin's body, covered only by a barely-there thong (which Bo hadn't really expected from Tamsin of all people) and her soaking wet white tank top. It was past the point of see-through, and Bo couldn't help but acknowledge Tamsin's body. The woman was many things, but ugly was so not one of them.

Tamsin scoffed. "Whatever. Don't think I'll forget that you're a liar, by the way," she said, gesturing at Bo's current attire of a matching set of black lace bra and panties and returning the leer.

"Am I, now?" Bo questioned with a quirked eyebrow, not bothering with any attempts at modesty.

Nodding, Tamsin strutted from the bathroom. "Yeah," she tossed back over her shoulder. "I seem to recall you telling me you don't wear underwear."

That surprised a laugh out of her, and in the following moments that Bo spent getting dressed by herself in her room, she thought that Tamsin was Kenzi's gift to Bo -because only Kenzi had ever been able to make her laugh no matter what. Her dear human had clearly trained her Lil T well.

By the time Bo made her way downstairs, it was nearly noon. Tamsin was already there, dressed in sweatpants and a tight black t-shirt that the brunette suspected belonged to Kenzi. Her blonde hair was scrunched into a sloppy bun, and she lay despondently on the couch, a half-empty bottle of vodka gripped loosely in one hand. Employing some tact, Bo chose not to comment on the fact that Tamsin was obviously well on her way to getting tanked and instead just lifted Tamsin's feet so she could take a seat on the couch before dropping them back into her lap. The house was unnervingly silent with just the two of them living in it, and numbness begin to creep back into gaping hole where Bo's heart used to be.

The pair of them sat in silence, passing the vodka between them, until a knock sounded at the door.

"Come in, Dyson!" Bo shouted over her shoulder.

The smell of pizza wafted into the clubhouse the moment the door was opened, quickly followed by the forms of the wolf shifter and Bo's ex-girlfriend, each bearing a pizza box. Neither of the residents of the house made a move to get up off the couch, so with a mutual shrug, Dyson and Lauren simply set the pizzas on the coffee table and sat nearby -Lauren on a chair and Dyson on the floor. Lauren, Dyson, and Bo all grabbed a piece, and Bo handed hers off to Tamsin when it was clear she wasn't going to take an interest in food that wasn't vodka. Tamsin didn't put up a fuss under Bo's pleading expression, and slowly took a bite as she watched Bo grab another piece for herself.

"Are you alright, Tamsin?" Dyson asked without preamble. Bo rather thought that seeing the normally tough Valkyrie in such a vulnerable state the night before had been disconcerting for him. Sure, he'd seen Tamsin in Lil T mode before, but that was different. Last night had been…

The Valkyrie took another swig of vodka. "Peachy," she muttered. "I'm just peachy."

Dyson wasn't phased by the behavior. It wasn't as if they weren't expecting it, Bo thought wryly. "You told me that we couldn't use the Hell shoe to bring Kenzi back. Does that mean it is possible?"

Everyone present sat up a little straighter at the thought, and even Tamsin's eyes sharpened. Slowly, Tamsin sat up -though she still left her feet across Bo's lap.

"Kenzi is human, and humans die, but… it wasn't her time," came the careful answer. "So in theory, yes. Kenzi could be reborn if her soul is returned to Midgard. She can't leave by herself though. In order for a soul to both enter and exit Valhalla, it must be taken."

"But not by the Hell shoe?" Bo clarified.

Tamsin stiffened. "We can't use the Hell shoe," she confirmed. "If we do, we'll have all of Valhalla on our asses, and if you think I'm a bitch, you should really meet some of my Valkyrie sisters. The Hell shoe works by tearing holes where they shouldn't be in the fabric between worlds, and that is just begging for bad shit to happen. There have been other souls taken from Valhalla without doing that, and that's what we're going to do too."

"How do they usually leave? Are they taken by a Valkyrie?" Lauren asked.

Tamsin shrugged. "Usually," she admitted. "Gods don't usually like to get their hands dirty, unless they take a personal interest."

Lauren nodded. "So you could go to Valhalla now, and bring Kenzi back?"

Tamsin cringed. "It's… not that simple," she muttered. "Returning a soul back to the living goes against the natural order of the universe. Souls enter Valhalla every day, but few ever come out, because you need permission from both rulers of Valhalla -Freya and Odin- to do it. And they need a very good reason to grant such a request."

"Didn't you say that Freya owes you a favor?" Bo questioned.

Tamsin nodded. "She does, and she'll agree to give momz back. Freya isn't the problem. It's Odin we have to convince, and that's not going to be easy. He's kind of a stickler for the rules, not to mention that Odin and Freya only give audiences in person, meaning that in order to ask them to free Kenzi, you'd need to be in Valhalla."

"Well we have a Valkyrie, so that's not a problem, right?" Dyson pointed out.

Bo didn't need to see Tamsin's face to feel her heart sinking straight into her stomach, and she wondered what it was that Dyson didn't know -that this was Tamsin's last life; that said state apparently barred her from Valhalla; or both.

"It is for this Valkyrie," the blonde sighed. "I can bring souls to the gates now, thanks to Rainer, but I can't actually go in."

"What?" Dyson exclaimed, clearly floored at the concept of a Valkyrie not able to enter Valhalla. "Why not?"

"Dyson…" Bo hissed out in a warning, not willing to have him upset Tamsin needlessly.

Any further protests from Bo were silenced, however, when Tamsin reached out and hesitantly squeezed Bo's hand in her own. Bo was instantly distracted by the feeling. She would have thought that Tamsin's hands would have been rough, what with all the fighting she did, but they weren't. On the contrary, Tamsin had beautiful hands. Soft and smooth with long fingers and immaculately maintained nails. "It's okay Bo," Tamsin assured her. "This is important."

Bo frowned at her, but Tamsin had already returned her attention to Dyson. "Valkyries serve," she said bluntly. "We take orders from Freya and Odin. It's what we do. You think I didn't know I'd be cast from Valhalla if I gave away Rainer's soul? I took Trick's deal for a reason." She sighed, and Bo squeezed the hand she still hadn't released, earning herself a grateful glance that made her feel warm. "Valkyries serve, but I… Odin literally owns me," she confessed with a glance towards Lauren.

Both Bo and her ex cringed at the reminder of Lauren's extended servitude to the Ash. It was surprising to hear that Tamsin was in a similar situation though. Bo had been under the impression that one couldn't enslave another Fae (legally, that is). Then again, Odin was a god. Though she wasn't sure what this had to do with Tamsin being on her last life, unless Tamsin had lied to her earlier that morning about why she was barred from Valhalla.

"Owns you?" Dyson repeated incredulously, and with no small amount of concern and alarm. "How…"

Tamsin glared at him. "I'm getting there, aren't I?" she snapped. "But yes, owns me. Most Valkyries serve Freya, who in turn is commanded by Odin. I am one of the few who spent time serving under him directly. Odin plays father figure to all of us, but he was my direct patron growing up, and responsible for all of my actions and training. When I was old enough, I became his servant exclusively. I don't think I've been to Folkvangr more than a handful of times. Once I reached my seventh life… I panicked," Tamsin confessed. "I would have never had the freedom that my Valkyrie sisters enjoyed, and I knew it, but at least living on Midgard gave me options. The average Valkyrie only has around six to eight life cycles to use on Earth though, and I'd gone through them so quickly, trying to spend every moment I could away from Valhalla…" Tamsin trailed off, an old pain replacing the fresh grief in her eyes for a brief moment.

"You broke the rules to buy yourself time," Lauren concluded, her expression entirely sympathetic.

"I did," Tamsin agreed.

"Is Valhalla really so bad?" Dyson asked softly, appearing greatly disturbed. Bo supposed he must be, hearing the lengths to which a Valkyrie would go to keep herself away from a place that was supposed to be heaven. She imagined that -old as he was- Dyson probably even knew people who had died in battle that had had their souls taken by a Valkyrie, and had always thought of them spending their afterlife in a better place.

Tamsin pursed her lips and began idly playing with Bo's fingers. "It's not bad," she hedged, "but it's not a place where I have a lot of freedom. On Earth, I could do pretty much what I wanted, so long as any assignments Odin gave me were completed, but in Valhalla… there are expectations. Standards of behavior and requirements of devotion, more so for myself as a ward of Odin than for others. I didn't belong to me, but to a man who agreed to a deal with my biological mother- my biological father's soul in exchange for their firstborn. Odin's big on poetic things like a life for a life and all that."

Hearing this, the blood drained from Bo's face. "Your mother did what?" she gasped, horrified. Tamsin wasn't a thing. No mother should ever give away her own child, even for that child's father. It was just… so wrong. Bo felt sick imagining Lil T growing up at a normal slow pace without someone like Kenzi to take care of her, and being told that the reason she didn't have parents was because her mother had loved her father more than she'd loved her own daughter. And to be bound to the man who had asked that price of her mother in the first place… Aife might have been a bag of crazy, but at least when she'd given Bo away, she'd done it so that her daughter could have a happy life. But Tamsin hadn't been so fortunate.

"Hey, don't get mushy on me now, succu-slut," Tamsin teased, reaching out so she could hold Bo's hand with both of her own. "We've all got sad orphan stories, and we can hug it out later, but we gotta focus on the bigger issue here."

Bo thought Tamsin's shitty childhood was a big issue, and privately thought that Kenzi would think so too, but the Valkyrie was right. It wasn't the time nor the place to have a discussion about it right now, so she dipped her head in acknowledgement of this point and voiced the first relevant observation she could filter out of her racing thoughts. "So that's why you waited so long to take Rainer's soul to Valhalla after Massimo killed him."

"It is," came the neutral response.

"And yet this doesn't explain why you still appear to be banished," Lauren pointed out.

"Let's… let's just say I used a very underutilized loophole in Valkyrie law to formally separate myself from the gods of that realm, on top of the banishment," Tamsin said after a short pause, visibly reluctant to say even that much on the subject. "The point isn't that I can't take any of you past the gates of Valhalla though. I'm not the only Valkyrie in the world, and since my banishment has been lifted, I can make contact with the others again and call in a favor. The point is that the only people who can actually enter Valhalla are A. Dead -which is a condition we want to avoid, B. Valkyries -which all of you are not, or C. gods -of which we have only one, who is of the demi variety." She looked pointedly at Bo.

Bo blinked under Tamsin's gaze and Dyson and Lauren's matching contemplative looks. "Me?" she bleated. "I can enter Valhalla?"

"Duh! You didn't think your creepy evil father -who not only had the power to trick not one but several Valkyries into doing violent shit for him, and has the ability to open the gates of hell to release the zombie souls of the dead- was just any old Fae with a bad attitude, did you?" Tamsin pointed out, poking Bo in the side, causing the brunette to squirm.

"No, but I… demigod. Really?" Bo protested, not sure how to feel about that revelation. She'd been told she was powerful, of course, but that's some Percy Jackson-level shit. She'd seen that movie, and having a god for a parent never seemed to turn out well for the unfortunate offspring. Though it would explain her proclivity for going all Dark Queen when she lost her shit, she mused.

Her protests, however, were summarily ignored. "So all we need to do is to get one of Tamsin's Valkyrie friends to take Bo to Valhalla so she can convince Odin to give her Kenzi's soul," Dyson summarized. Bo felt a little hopeful at this. That didn't sound too bad. Scary as hell, but less life-threatening than she'd originally thought.

"Yeah, remember how we got here, with Odin demanding a life for a life?" Tamsin butted in. "I'm so not volunteering my uterus for payment -even for momz- so we'd better have a game plan before we send mega-tits here on her solo mission."

And there went that nice moment of hope Bo was having. Shit.

A depressed silence descended over the group as Tamsin dropped Bo's hand and returned to swigging vodka like it was water.

"Look, let's take tonight to think of some plans," Dyson suggested, rubbing at the back of his neck. "We've… we've all had a rough couple of days and this is a lot of information to take in. We can meet at the Dal tomorrow night and go over ideas then, where we'll have Trick to help too."

Somewhat relieved, Bo nodded fervently. She wanted Kenzi back as soon as possible, but they wouldn't be doing her any good if they were stupid about trying to help her. Tamsin promised that Kenzi would be protected. That would have to do for now.

Because they would get her back.

The others agreed. Normally, Bo might have suggested they all do something fun at this point, but none of them were in the mood for fun right now. Kenzi had always been the fun one. Instead, Dyson and Lauren each left after hugging both Bo and Tamsin (much to the Valkyrie's disgruntlement), leaving the two alone, still sprawled on the couch. They didn't talk, or even watch TV, but instead each spent the next couple of hours absorbed in their own quiet contemplation. And when the sky outside started to darken, they finished the now cold pizza and made their way upstairs to bed hours earlier than they would have if they still weren't emotionally shattered from the loss of the one person each loved more than anything. Tamsin slowed when they reached the landing, but Bo grabbed her hand and pulled her with her into her bedroom, grateful when Tamsin didn't protest a sleepover for the second night in a row.

Bo didn't think she could take sleeping alone. And Tamsin made her feel so safe.

As she scooted closer to Tamsin minutes later after they'd both stripped to their underwear and crawled into the bed, Bo hoped that she made the Valkyrie feel safer too. Sleepily, Bo hummed her thanks as Tamsin draped an arm over her waist in response to the movement; and though she made a token effort to stay awake in the dark for a few minutes longer to enjoy Tamsin's proximity, Bo was fast asleep within minutes.


	3. Sister, Sister

"Bo?" Tamsin asked, her voice very soft -as if she weren't quite certain the succubus was awake.

Luckily for Tamsin, Bo was indeed awake. Barely. From the quality of the light in the room, she could tell they'd slept until well past mid morning, but Bo couldn't really bring herself to care. Just laying here in bed, curled up on top of Tamsin's warm body… well, it felt good. Here, in this bed, Bo could just enjoy feeling warm and secure, and she could forget about the world outside where Kenzi was gone and Rainer hadn't been her destiny and she had been acting an utter ass to the people she cared about and her dad was an even bigger ass and Tamsin was beholden to a god who was more of an ass than Bo but less so than her father, and where Lauren had gone and put a target on her back by actually developing a way to turn a Fae into a human and Dyson had fallen to his knees before her and sworn fealty to her as if Bo were an actual Queen because he loved her even when Bo couldn't love him back the way he wanted her to and… well, Bo liked it better right here, where she didn't have to worry about any of that and could bask in the gentle way Tamsin was holding her, as if she wasn't sure she was allowed to touch.

Touch had always had a powerful effect on Bo. It was ironic, really, that a Fae who used touch as a weapon was so weak to the same thing, but she couldn't help it. Bo had grown up having as many hugs and kisses as she wanted, but all this had ended when her loving touch had unexpectedly turned deadly, and she'd spent the next ten years living without touching anyone outside of manipulation or murder. Loving touch was a privilege to her now, and one that Bo indulged in as often as possible with her friends, family, and lovers. It meant a lot to her to be able to touch and be touched in return. Tamsin wasn't a touchy kind of girl though. (At least sober.) A shame, really, as she was that perfect mixture of hard and soft that practically begged for Bo to run her hands along her smooth curves and toned muscles. Before this mess with her asshole father though, Bo had always been a little afraid to indulge herself in even the most innocent of touches with Tamsin. Tamsin was just so… powerfully sad and beautiful at the same time that Bo feared a touch would shatter one or both of them, and not in a good way. Now, however, they needed each other. Somehow, that made things a little easier. At least for Bo.

She hoped that Tamsin hadn't called her name to ask her to let go. "Hmm?" she acknowledged groggily.

Obviously, Tamsin hadn't expected that Bo would actually be awake, as she tensed briefly beneath Bo's body before relaxing again when she showed no signs of moving. It was so unexpectedly adorable that Bo almost wanted to laugh, but she thought better of it.

"What is it, Tamsin?" she asked instead, snuggling herself deeper into the blonde's hesitant embrace, eyes still closed against the sunlight.

Tamsin fidgeted slightly beneath her. "You… don't have to do this, you know?" she finally said quietly, as if it pained her.

Sensing that this conversation was going to be far from pleasant, Bo lifted her head from where it had fallen on Tamsin's shoulder in the night and looked the Valkyrie in the face, genuinely puzzled even as Tamsin turned her face away as if she were embarrassed or ashamed. "Do what?"

"Be so... nice to me. Take care of me just because you think that's what Kenzi would have wanted." Tamsin shrugged, still avoiding eye contact with Bo. "I'll still help you find her, Bo. You know that. You don't have to pretend."

Bo was stunned. How could Tamsin think that, she wondered? Looking at Tamsin now, she could see that same face highlighted by the light of a vat of lava and backed by the Valkyrie's magnificent wings, telling Bo that she knew Bo despised her- and Bo remembered telling Tamsin that she thought she was incredible.

So that's what love feels like.

Bo never knew what to make of that little phrase. Never knew if that was Lil T or Tamsin talking at the time. She wondered now why she had never thought to ask.

There were a lot of things she'd never thought to ask Tamsin. She could name them all now though, and the questions were flying around her brain like so many little dust devils, bumping into each other and crashing against her skull. Mainly, Bo wondered when Tamsin had reached the conclusion that their friendship wasn't a friendship at all, and merely a matter of Bo tolerating the Valkyrie's presence because Kenzi insisted on it.

But then, Bo had never really given Tamsin a reason to believe anything else, had she? She remembered back to the moment when Dyson had burst into the crack shack with an injured and unconscious Tamsin cradled in his arms, and Bo had finally reached the conclusion that Tamsin was a better friend to her than she'd ever cared to acknowledge. She remembered thinking that Tamsin was always giving Bo exactly what she needed (even if she didn't want it) and that all Bo did was take. She remembered vowing to do better. To be better. And Bo wondered now if she'd already failed.

"Do you… do you know what Kenzi told me, when Hale died?" she asked sadly, slightly hurt that Tamsin felt this way but knowing she probably deserved it.

Tamsin frowned, clearly not seeing the relevance, and shook her head. She did look at her this time though, and Bo was grateful for it.

"She told me I was selfish," Bo admitted, the memory of that day forcing all the air out of her lungs just as surely as it had done the first time. Every breath she took stung, and Bo felt a tear roll down her face, closely followed by another. "She said a lot of things. Hateful things. But they were true. I am those things, and I hurt her, and I hurt you because I'm selfish and self-absorbed and don't see anyone else's feelings unless they affect me."

Now, Tamsin couldn't look away from her, and Bo took a moment to admire the irony as the blonde peered at her with overt concern. Hadn't this conversation started with Tamsin seeking reassurance? It appeared that Tamsin had already forgotten all about that, as she reached up to try and wipe away a few of the tears that were now falling thick and fast from Bo's cheeks and beading on the soft skin of Tamsin's throat. Bo leaned into the touch, feeling both grateful and horribly guilty at the same time. Here was Tamsin, taking care of her again, and Bo accepting the comfort. This time, though, she would make sure Tamsin knew just how much this meant to her.

"You… you were always there when I needed you, Tamsin, and you were the only one who wasn't afraid to kick my ass when I totally deserved it," Bo continued with a watery laugh when the ass-kicking comment earned a sheepish smile from Tamsin. "You were always doing things for me even when I wanted to hit you for it, and you never complained or asked for anything in return, and I just took what you gave and never gave anything back."

"That's not true," Tamsin told her gently, still thumbing away Bo's tears. "You've given me lots of things. More than you know."

Bo just shook her head, momentarily consumed by her guilt. "Maybe, but not enough," she insisted, shuddering delicately when her tears increased in intensity. After all that had happened the past few days… they just wouldn't stop. "When Dyson brought you here, you looked… and I thought for a moment that we'd lost you and I'd wasted all my time being an ass to you because it was easier to do that than to treat you like a fucking person, and I never even realized how important you were and how much you did for me until I thought you wouldn't be there anymore Tamsin," she confessed, sniffling and pressing her face back into Tamsin's shoulder, as if she could hide from her own shame. "I was selfish then and I'm selfish now because I need you and you should hate me for how I've treated you, but I still can't let you go."

Bo remembered telling Tamsin on Yule that she was really, really scared. She remembered Tamsin telling her that she didn't have to be, because Tamsin had her. She remembered feeling like she always felt with Tamsin -safe- and that feeling scaring her almost as much as what she'd confessed to the Krampus.

So she'd done what she always did when she was scared of something. She ran. Figuratively, anyways, because she just couldn't deal with getting to close to anyone right then. Thus had begun Bo's campaign of ignoring the very ground Tamsin walked on.

And look how well that had turned out. Gods, she was such a dick.

"Bo…" Tamsin sighed, winding her arms around her and hugging her tightly. "Bo, it's okay."

"No!" Bo sobbed, officially hysterical. "It's not okay. It's never okay. All I do is hurt people, no matter what I do, and I'm too selfish to warn them to stay away from me. Kyle, Dyson, Lauren, K-Kenzi, you… and I can't… I can't…" Bo couldn't finish that train of thought. Can't stay away? Can't keep doing this? It didn't matter. Both were true.

In an unexpected display of physical affection, Tamsin just hushed her and carded a hand through Bo's hair. "It is okay Bo," she promised. "It is. We all mess up sometimes, and you've had like, the shittiest past few months. So I think you get a pass for being a bitch, yeah?" she teased. "What's my excuse?"

Still halfway crying, Bo giggled a little and raised her head again so she could see Tamsin's face wearing that trademarked, annoyingly smug smirk. "Being like, a billion years old but never getting the senior discount for your booze?" she offered.

Tamsin mock gasped. "Why you little!"

Their little talk devolved into a short tickle fight that nearly had Bo toppling from the bed until she cried uncle and they both collapsed side by side back onto the tangled sheets, panting and giggling.

"I know I don't have to be nice to you, Tamsin," Bo said suddenly, turning her flushed face to where Tamsin lay sprawled beside her and returning to their original topic of conversation. "But I want to, because you deserve that -and so much more- from me. I'm so, so sorry that I ever made you think I don't care about you, because I do, Tamsin. So much. You're one of the most important people in my life, and I can't express how much you mean to me." It was the truth. Bo cared quite a lot. Dangerously so. Recent events had absolved her of her fear of that, though, and she was only just beginning to realize how easy Tamsin was to love.

Tamsin swallowed as her stunning green eyes met Bo's brown ones and saw the earnestness there, a curious emotion that Bo couldn't identify briefly flickering over her features before it was gone again. "O-okay," she acknowledged hoarsely.

Bo had half expected a snarky comeback to her apology, but realized in that moment that her own forced indifference had probably hurt Tamsin far more deeply than she had previously imagined. What was left of her heart seized painfully at the thought, and Bo privately vowed that once she got Kenzi back, she'd let the little human kick her ass twice as hard as she'd originally intended. She'd really hurt Tamsin without ever knowing it, and Bo wished she could take it all back.

Too bad life didn't work that way.

Instead, Bo rolled to the side and reclaimed her place curled on top of Tamsin's trim form, cuddling in close and sighing in contentment.

"Hey, do I look like a body pillow?" Tamsin complained in her usual tone, that one precious moment of vulnerability long gone. She poked a gentle finger into Bo's exposed ribcage.

Bo chuckled. "Yes," she retorted, closing her eyes and relaxing her body in exaggerated comfort. "Now be a good pillow and stop making noise."

Bo wasn't really surprised when Tamsin readily obeyed, draping an arm over her waist. "Greedy little succubus," she whispered, closing her own eyes again despite the late hour.

Bo just smirked.

By the time the pair of them dressed and made their way downstairs after their power nap, it was nearing noon. Neither really felt like going out until later that night, when they'd already agreed to meet Lauren and Dyson at the Dal, so they poured themselves dry cereal (the milk was expired) and munched away in companionable silence.

That is, until a sharp knock sounded at the door.

Confused, Tamsin and Bo glanced at each other, and Tamsin just shrugged. "One of your booty calls, succu-slut?" she suggested.

Bo just rolled her eyes. "I'll just get the door then," she muttered, sticking out her tongue when Tamsin smirked in victory and returned to munching on her cereal. Shaking her head, Bo made her way across the house and flung open the front door, only to freeze in place when she saw-

...Tamsin? Bo's jaw slackened. It certainly looked like Tamsin. That is, if Tamsin suddenly had the urge to curl her hair and pin it into an elaborate updo, then summarily mug a runway model to steal her sparkling black cocktail dress with the risque neckline and five inch strappy heels. This Tamsin carried an entirely impractical tiny silver clutch bag, wore finely crafted jewelry decorated with tiny silver hearts, and had eyes accentuated by heavy and dramatic smokey shadow with lips painted a deep red. Bo was pretty sure she even spotted some body glitter. All in all, this Tamsin was a complete midnight seductress. Except… except Tamsin was back in the kitchen, eating stale dry cereal in a pair of old jeans and a tank top, and Bo was willing to bet that that girl hadn't worn a dress willingly for at least a decade. So if Tamsin was in the kitchen, who was this?

"What the hell?" Bo blurted out in a shining moment of eloquence as she looked not-Tamsin up and down and back up again. (Could anyone blame her? Tamsin -and therefore not-Tamsin- was stunning.)

Not-Tamsin's eyes glittered with a mixture of both amusement and predatory anger. "So you're the unaligned succubus I've heard so much about. I thought you'd be more…" She paused, tapping a perfectly manicured nail against her painted lower lip. "... articulate. But no matter. Where's Thomasina?"

Her brain still somewhat fried by the situation, Bo could only blink at the massive amount of deja vu she'd experienced hearing Tamsin's voice coming out of not-Tamsin's mouth saying one of the first things Tamsin had ever said to her. So you're the Bo I've heard so much about. "Um, who?" she spluttered. Who the fuck was Thomasina? Who the fuck was this?

"Thomasina? Valkyrie? About yea-big?" not-Tamsin huffed, clearly irritated as she indicated her own height. "Total smartass and devourer of vodka? You know, the Thomasina I'm told has spent the past several months in your obviously oh-so-intelligent presence? The looks-exactly-like-me Thomasina?"

Okay, so not-Tamsin knew real-Tamsin. Who may or may not be named Thomasina. Bo could already feel a headache forming. "Wait here a moment?" she asked not-Tamsin with her sweetest smile before turning on heel and shouting towards the kitchen, "Tamsin! You really need to see this!"

Within moments, Tamsin burst into view, a short dagger clutched in her hand. "Bo, what-" She choked on her own words as she suddenly spotted not-Tamsin lounging in the doorway behind a completely confused Bo. "Hnoss?"

Not-Tamsin (whose name was Hnoss, apparently) immediately straightened from her bored pose and smiled blindingly in a way Bo had never witnessed from real-Tamsin. "Gersemi!" she squealed, pushing past Bo like she wasn't even there and leaping into Tamsin's waiting arms. "Did you miss me?"

Much to Bo's shock, Tamsin just dropped the dagger and clutched Hnoss tightly to her chest as if she were afraid her dolled-up clone would disappear on her. "Oh my gods, Hnoss. What are you doing here? I… I can't believe you're here!"

Instantly, Hnoss separated herself from Tamsin and slapped the other blonde on the back of the head, earning herself an annoyed Ow! "What do you mean you can't believe it?" she demanded. "Your banishment is finally lifted so that I can see you whenever I want without pissing of 'He-who-shall-not-be-named' and you'd think I'd what- stay in Valhalla? Fuck, 'Semi! What kind of sister do you think I am?"

At these words, Bo inhaled sharply, finally understanding what was going on here. Hnoss was Tamsin's twin sister. She'd heard Tamsin mention before that she could only see other Valkyries every once in a while, since they weren't really supposed to talk to a Valkyrie who was banished, but she hadn't realized that Tamsin's banishment all those years ago would have separated her from her sister. Hell, she'd never known Tamsin even had a sister, much less an identical twin. But then again, Bo had no idea how close they really were. Last night, Tamsin had told them that she'd been given away to Odin by her birth mother in a deal: her lover's soul for her firstborn child. If Tamsin was the firstborn of the two, they would have likely been raised apart. Bo didn't know how old they'd been when they'd first met, or how that reunion had gone. She couldn't imagine Tamsin being very happy about discovering she'd been separated from her twin.

But then again, there was obviously a lot she didn't know about Tamsin.

Said Valkyrie had heard Bo's gasp, however, and it had snapped her focus away from the reunion with her sister and back to the situation at hand. Awkwardly, she cleared her throat and moved to stand in between her sister and her roommate. "Um, Bo? This… this is Hnoss, my sister. We haven't… seen each other for a while, since she lives in Folkvangr and I'm… me," she introduced, reddening slightly. "Hnoss, this is Bo, my… my very good friend. We kind of… live together."

"Yes, yes, the unaligned succubus with the big brain, I know," Hnoss snapped, waving her hand impatiently. "We've met. She makes an adequate doorman. You're missing the point, Gersemi."

"Not my name!" Tamsin shot back, scowling blackly. Bo was still deciding if she should be offended by Hnoss' attitude or not.

Hnoss smirked that annoyingly smug Tamsin smirk. "Thomasina then," she drawled.

"Tamsin. No one uses the name Thomasina anymore," Tamsin replied, rolling her eyes.

"Tamsin," Hnoss growled, her eyes flashing dangerously. "You're missing the point."

Clearly feeling pleased with herself for pissing her sister off so quickly, Tamsin took her turn to wear the smirk. "And your point is, little sister?"

"Mother told me you've Fallen," Hnoss said, and the air in the room grew inexplicably thick and solemn as Tamsin's smirk faltered and she deflated slightly. Hnoss too seemed to grow smaller, as she begged in a tiny voice, "Show me?"

Tamsin inhaled sharply and paled. "Hnoss, I don't think-"

"What?" the Tamsin look-alike in the tiny black dress (which Bo could now see was missing a back) demanded. "You don't think I should see them? You don't think I should look at the proof that my sister is going to die before we could even really start being sisters?"

Bo felt faint. She knew that Tamsin was on her last life, certainly, but this sounded like… more than that. Didn't Valkyries go to Valhalla when they died? Isn't that where Hnoss lived anyways?

Tamsin sighed. "Hnoss, you know it's not like that. You know this is for the best. I've still got a couple hundred years left in me."

"I don't care. Mother and I would have figured out a way to free you if you hadn't been so stupid and took matters into your own hands!" Hnoss shouted, flailing her hands in such a Tamsin-like way that it was almost creepy to watch. "So show me!"

Clenching her jaw tightly, Tamsin finally conceded the argument. Carefully avoiding eye contact with both Bo and her angry twin, she took a small step backwards into the shack and released her wings with a short groan of discomfort. Bo had always been fascinated by Tamsin's wings. She vividly remembered the first time she'd seen them when Lil T had unleashed on Massimo in his creepy-ass lair, and how hard her heart had pounded when she'd first set eyes on the magnificent sight of the Valkyrie in her full glory. It was terrifying and beautiful all at once, and Bo had never quite realized just how powerful Tamsin could be if she wanted to until that very moment. She hadn't seen those wings again until two nights ago, when Tamsin had spread them once more so she could bring Kenzi's soul to Valhalla. Tamsin had been weeping, covered in blood and dirt and trembling because Kenzi was gone and…

Bo had never really noticed how much Tamsin's wings had changed between the first time she'd seen them and how she saw them now. In Massimo's lair, they'd been white and fluffy, speckled around the edges with black. She'd looked like an avenging angel. But when Tamsin had spread them for Kenzi, and now for Hnoss… they were different. Dark in color -mostly black with a few highlights of very dark grey- and more streamlined. Harsher. Almost malevolent. Like Death herself had come instead of just her harbinger. Their grim aesthetics had so perfectly fit the mood of pain and mourning in those moments after Kenzi's death, Bo hadn't given them a second thought. It was fitting that Tamsin's wings be sad because Tamsin was sad and the change had never even registered to Bo before this moment.

But Hnoss was staring at her twin's wings like they were two poisonous snakes instead of body parts, and tears were gathering in her pale green eyes, and she was crying, "Gersemi, oh Gersemi no…" and Bo knew that something was very, very wrong.

"Hnoss, no, come on. It's not so bad," Tamsin wheedled, stepping forwards and embracing her twin lovingly even as her wings arced behind her like large, menacing shadows. She kissed Hnoss' temple and smiled against it. "I look kind of badass, yeah?"

"You're an idiot. A sexy, sexy idiot," Hnoss sniffled, apparently agreeing with Tamsin's assessment. She pulled away slightly. "I know why you let it happen. I just wish you'd left before you went through with it. Who? Who did you…?"

Tamsin shook her head and took a step back, pulling her wings back into her flesh with a grimace, leaving her tank top torn and stained with two parallel lines of blood over her shoulder blades. "No. I'm not telling you that, Hnoss."

The other Valkyrie smirked. "Because I'd hold them at swordpoint and force them to help you Rise?" she deadpanned.

"Exactly," Tamsin agreed. She smiled so sadly then, that Bo ached. "And you know that's not how it works. You know that's not why I did it."

"Yeah, you just committed suicide so you could sever your ties to Odin," Hnoss said bitterly.

Hearing this, Bo emitted a strangled sound, her mind spinning. She'd known Tamsin was uncomfortable talking about how she'd managed to get herself banned from Valhalla for a second time, but to hear that it was killing her… Bo didn't know if she wanted to kill Tamsin herself or just hold her and never let her go. She knew that Tamsin hated that she belonged to Odin, and Bo couldn't blame her; but this Falling business sounded very serious and if Tamsin had done something stupid without telling her, Bo was going to lose her shit. Tamsin couldn't die. Bo needed her. She needed her and she didn't think she could survive losing both her and Kenzi.

"Oh gods, Bo, it's not like it sounds," Tamsin exclaimed when she saw the devastated look on Bo's face. Swiftly, she closed the distance between them and wrapped Bo into her arms. Bo just stood there and trembled, feeling nauseous and dizzy and oh gods not Tamsin too and trying very hard not to cry, because she needed answers yesterday. "Hnoss is just being a brat, I promise Bo. I'm not gonna die."

Off to the side, Hnoss snorted, and Tamsin glared at her.

Bo just clutched at the Valkyrie's sides, breathing deeply. She was stuck between yelling at Tamsin for being so Tamsin and yelling at her for not telling the truth. All of this was… too much, and she missed the days when she could look at Tamsin and not fear for the blonde's very life. "What is Falling?" she asked into Tamsin's shoulder, her voice muffled. She reached down and pinched Tamsin's side, causing her to jerk slightly. "And you'd better tell me the truth this time, Valkyrie, or so help me I'll make you wish my father had kicked down the gates of Hell."

Awkward silence fell over the room then. Bo could feel both Tamsin's hesitation and Hnoss' eyes scrutinizing their embrace, as if she were trying to discover what exactly was between them. (Though that was something even Bo herself was unsure about.)

Finally, Tamsin seemed to have reached an answer that would satisfy her. "Falling is that loophole I was talking about last night, that separated me from the powers in Valhalla," she said measuredly, as if she were speaking in an instructional video. "It's a way of formally repudiating Odin's fatherly love for me as a Valkyrie daughter, and removing all of my loyalties away from Valhalla. When a Valkyrie Falls, her feathers go black, and her current life cycle becomes her last. I won't be reborn if I die again, and my soul won't go to Valhalla, where I'd be trapped with Odin as my master forever. I'm free now."

Bo stood stock still as she absorbed this information, listening to Tamsin's even breathing and this distinct lack of comment from Hnoss. The way Tamsin phrased it, Falling didn't seem so bad, but Bo knew from Hnoss' reaction alone that it was something very dangerous for a Valkyrie, and that what she'd just been told was probably far from the whole truth. And… it stung a bit that Tamsin would lie to her about it. Tamsin never lied to her. The Valkyrie's cagey behavior about the whole subject was setting off every alarm bell that Bo had, so in retaliation for Tamsin doing something she never did, Bo would do the same. The succubus pulled Tamsin into an embrace, running a finger down the back of her neck and releasing a powerful shot of her charms, which she made a point of never using on her friends. (Unless it was during sex, but Bo hadn't had the pleasure with Tamsin yet.) Obviously shocked by the sudden flood of euphoria, Tamsin shuddered in her arms and stopped breathing altogether when Bo pressed her lips to her ear.

Bo smirked at the wonderful response she was feeling in Tamsin's aura. "You're a liar, Tamsin," she murmured into her ear quietly enough that Hnoss wouldn't be able to hear what Bo was saying. Bo released another wave of charms into Tamsin's tensed body. "I could make you tell me the truth, but I think you're allowed to have secrets. So I'm going to tell the truth instead." Her tone hardened and her grip tightened on Tamsin's form. "If you die and leave me, I will hunt you down and drag your perfectly-formed ass back to the land of the living and find some very creative ways to hurt you. Do you understand, Thomasina?"

"Yes," came the immediate answer. Tamsin was nodding frantically and her arms trembled, as if she couldn't decide between pushing Bo away or pulling her closer. "Bo, there's… a lot of things you don't know about me," she blurted in a rush. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I-"

Bo smiled sweetly at her and ceased pushing her charms, using the newly freed hand to place a finger over Tamsin's lips. "Secrets. I get it," she reminded her. "You got my promise though?"

Tamsin just nodded, speechless and wide-eyed.

"Good. Remember that," Bo told her before pulling away completely and facing the twins, one of whom was still shell-shocked and the other studying her as if she'd never seen anything quite like her before. "It was nice to meet you, Hnoss. I'll give you two some time to catch up. Come and get me when we're going to leave, Tamsin. I'll be in the bath." With that, Bo flounced up the stairs, paying special attention to the sway of her hips as she did so.

As she was leaving the room, she faintly heard Hnoss snort in a very unladylike way. "Dude, the sex demon? Really?" she asked.

"Shut the fuck up, Hnoss," Tamsin snapped back.


	4. Thomasina

Though she'd originally thought the prank to be somewhat childish in nature, Bo had to admit that the looks on the faces of Lauren, Dyson, and Trick were completely and utterly priceless as she strode into the Dal side by side with Tamsin: Bombshell Edition. Bo couldn't really blame them for how hotly their auras flared at the sight. Tamsin rarely put too much effort into her appearance, mostly choosing to coast on her abundance of natural beauty and her sheer force of personality. Hnoss, however, was something of a diva, as Bo was beginning to discover. According to a mildly exasperated Tamsin, the nightclub look the younger twin was sporting at the moment was Hnoss' version of casual dress. The twins were already extremely attractive specimens, but when they went the extra mile, the results were spectacular (as proven by the table full of dropped jaws where Bo and Tamsin's friends were waiting for them).

Kenzi, Bo thought longingly, would have found this moment to be completely hilarious.

"'Sup guys!" Bo called out cheerfully as she crossed the bar and took a seat at the table, pulling out a chair for Hnoss in a rare show of chivalry that earned her a flirtatious wink.

Dyson was the first of the flabbergasted and blushing trio to recover enough to say something. "Um, Tamsin?" he questioned hesitantly. "What am I looking at right now?"

Hnoss smirked the patented Tamsin smirk. "A hot piece of ass, wolf-boy," she snarked, leaning forwards enough that the neckline of her dress dipped dangerously low. Several pairs of eyes followed the motion (Bo's included, though she did so far more shamelessly than the others, who were still stuck trying to compute the idea of Tamsin in a dress.) and Hnoss gave Lauren a deliberate wink. "Like what you see, doctor?"

It had been a very good idea to give Hnoss the brief who's-who speech as they drove here, Bo decided.

Fortunately for a reddening Lauren, she was saved from replying when Tamsin chose that moment to make her entrance. She was dressed in her typical practical style, wearing low-riding jeans, a tank, and a flattering leather jacket. "I found your earring, Bo. It just fell under the seat," she said as she casually passed a diamond stud to Bo and took a seat right next to Hnoss, looking for all the world like suddenly encountering a clone of yourself was a totally normal thing to happen to her. "'Sup guys? Have you been nice to my baby sister?"

Hnoss rolled her eyes. "We are almost three thousand years old, 'Semi. I'm many things. A baby is not one of them."

"I'm still older," Tamsin teased, scrunching her nose.

Hnoss made an identical expression. "By fifteen minutes."

Tamsin grinned, and was about to retort with something suitably scathing when the sisterly banter was suddenly interrupted by Lauren, who apparently couldn't take it anymore and just blurted, "Oh my God," then blushed and muttered an apology when the entire table turned to stare at her.

Bo just laughed, genuinely carefree for the first time since Kenzi had walked into that portal. She didn't miss that Tamsin shot her a glowing look at the sound. Seeing her sister again had done the Valkyrie a world of good, Bo mused. She didn't know what they'd talked about while she'd been lounging about upstairs, but whatever it was, Bo was grateful it had happened. Tamsin had changed a lot from the dark and bitter person she'd been when they'd first met, but Bo was well aware that Tamsin wasn't always happy. Hnoss made her happy though; and Bo was grateful for it, because Tamsin had a beautiful smile.

"Guys, this is Hnoss, Tamsin's sister," Bo introduced. "She showed up this- Grandpa, are you okay?" she asked, alarmed when Trick choked on his beer at the mention of Hnoss' name and started coughing. Bo would have expected Lauren, as a doctor, to be the first one to see to Trick's well being, but the human had gone rigid in her seat and very, very pale. Dyson was frowning at them, obviously confused, Hnoss appeared amused, and Tamsin just dropped her head into her hands with a long-suffering sigh and a muttered here we go.

"H-Hnoss?" Trick spluttered in a surprisingly quick recovery, his eyes wide. "As in the goddess?"

Hnoss' grin only grew wider and more malevolent at the question. She tilted her chin up proudly and tossed her hair in a haughty motion so unfamiliar it was actually disconcerting to see it performed with Tamsin's body. "Of course. Be grateful that Gersemi doesn't wish me to harm you for the disservice you did her, little Blood King. I may be the goddess of desire, but I am not unfamiliar with the art of war."

Trick blanched, and shot a look at Tamsin, who still had her head in her hands like she was praying for this meeting to be over. Bo was looking at her too, as was everyone else. Lauren with sudden understanding, Dyson with sudden interest, and Bo with the realization of just how many secrets Tamsin did have. "You're not a real goddess, Hnoss. Your mother is one. So slow your roll on defending my honor there," Tamsin snapped at her sister once she felt she'd had enough of the stares.

"Hold up," Dyson threw in, pointing an accusing finger at his partner. "You're Gersemi? The Gersemi? As in lost daughter of Freya and goddess of beauty Gersemi?"

Tamsin rolled her eyes. "So they tell me," she muttered. "Just… that's not my name, okay? I grew up as Thomasina. I'd like it to stay that way, please. And I'm not a goddess."

Bo lifted a skeptical eyebrow. "Yes you are," she accused, now understanding why Freya 'owed Tamsin a favor' when Tamsin claimed she'd only ever been to Folkvangr a few times. She'd literally traded Tamsin away for her boyfriend's life. Harsh. "Of the demi variety, as you so eloquently put it last night."

"Well it's not like you're the only one who's allowed to be a member of that club, succubitch," Tamsin said with a scowl. "Does it really matter?"

"Yes!" Trick exclaimed, flinging out a hand to emphasize the point which Lauren had to duck. "I have Hnoss and Gersemi sitting in my bar. I have the daughters of Freya, goddess of the Valkyries, beauty, gold, music, war, and death, sitting in my bar!"

"I bitch-slapped Gersemi," Lauren groaned to herself. "I bitch-slapped Gersemi."

The expression of I'm so done that Tamsin was wearing was something that Bo found incredibly amusing, even in her state of mild shock. Even better was the tangible smugness rolling of Hnoss in waves. The entire situation was so utterly ridiculous that Bo was tempted to just collapse into a fit of hysterical giggles, stumble over to the bar, and drown herself in a bottle of something that tasted like paint thinner until the world made sense again.

"Whoop-dee-fucking-doo!" Tamsin growled. "Can we just forget this shit and move on to what we're all here for? We have a Valkyrie. We have a demigod. Now all we need is a way to convince Odin to get Kenzi back. Plan?"

Hnoss hummed thoughtfully. "Kenzi. Is that the human soul you brought to Valhalla with Rainer? Eir and and Gunnr told me you put up quite the fight until mother came to take her. Oh!" she gasped, eyes wide as she glanced towards Tamsin's back. "I thought it was the bimbo, but is Kenzi the one who you Fe-"

"-No!" Tamsin said sharply, cutting Hnoss of mid-sentence, clearly very aware of the curious looks the others at the table were giving her. "No. But you should know that Kenzi is very important to me, and we need her back."

"Why?" Hnoss asked, wrinkling her nose. "She's already made it to Folkvangr! She's just a human. She'll have to go back in like, twenty years anyways. We've gone longer than that between phone calls."

Bo felt her eyes flashing blue in anger, and she suddenly found it very hard not to smack the arrogant Valkyrie across the face. Gods, since Tamsin had been reborn, she'd almost forgotten how obnoxious and abrasive Valkyries could be. Really, it was only the fact that Hnoss made Tamsin so happy that she was spared a succubitch-slap. Well, that and Tamsin's own angry growl.

It seemed, however, that Hnoss didn't sense the danger she was in. Or if she did, that she was just bitter enough to not care. She plowed forwards relentlessly, her red lips pulled into a sneer very unlike anything Bo had ever seen on Tamsin's face. "Oh wait, that's right. You won't last much longer than that either so of course you want your precious human back. That and she's family, right Tamsin? Because that's always been so important to you, and it's always better to live out your twilight years with family. I'm just so glad that Falling put some things in perspective for you, sister," she spat.

Okay. So maybe Hnoss hadn't gotten over that whole Falling thing yet, Bo thought wryly to herself as Tamsin bared her teeth ferally and drew herself up for an answering volley. Deciding that enough was enough, Bo hopped out of her chair and squeezed herself in between the two sisters, holding a placating hand up to Hnoss and gently gripping Tamsin's shoulder. "Woah, time out!" Bo called. "Hnoss, I know you're pissed at Tamsin for Falling. Believe me, I get it, because I hate the thought of her dying just as much as you, but it doesn't mean she doesn't love you, okay? She's a big girl, and she decides what makes her happy, even if we don't agree with it. Yelling at her won't accomplish anything right now. Yell at her later," she advised.

"You Fell?" Trick breathed, focused on Tamsin. "I thought Fallen Valkyries were a myth!"

"That's it," Tamsin muttered before standing up and glaring at each and every person at the table, all of whom were intrigued by the talk of Fallen Valkyries and death. "Listen up! Here's the deets. Yes, I've Fallen. Yes, I allowed it to happen on purpose. Yes, I'm on my last life. No, I'm not going to drop dead any time soon. And no, I won't be telling any of you who my warrior is. That's my business, and theirs. None of this shit is relevant to finding Kenzi, however, so I'm gonna say that there'll be no more questions about this. Capiche? Good." She sat back down, swinging her chair around so that she kept Bo between her and Hnoss.

Uncomfortably, Dyson cleared his throat. "So, anyone have any ideas on how to convince a god to let us have a soul?" he tossed out into the stunned silence.

"I've done a lot of research on Odin, and he seems to be portrayed as a reasonably benevolent figure so long as you don't upset him, but I didn't find anything on trading souls with him," Lauren offered with a contemplative frown.

Everyone at the table glanced at each other uneasily, in various stages of 'I got nothing'. Everyone, that is, except Trick. "Perhaps it isn't so much a problem of convincing, as it is offering him something that he wants," he proposed. "And… I think I have an idea for that. We find Gungnir."

At this suggestion, Hnoss tossed her head back and laughed out loud. "You can't be serious!" she chortled. "Odin's spear was stolen by a Loki over three hundred years ago. All of Valhalla couldn't find it. What makes you think we can?"

Bo frowned. "What's a gungnir?" she asked, then tilted her head to one side in thought, before adding, "And why are there so many Lokis and only one Odin and Freya?"

"You never asked Ryan?" Trick asked, somewhat amused.

Coughing awkwardly, Bo blushed. "We didn't really… talk much," she muttered.

From across the table, Lauren rolled her eyes.

"The Loki from human mythology was a demigod. Odin took him in," Tamsin said tartly from Bo's other side, inspecting her nails for flaws the brunette was pretty sure didn't exist. "He… got around, you could say. Started his own species of fae. They hang around Asgard sometimes, but they're not usually allowed into Valhalla unless they're dead."

"Anyways, Gungnir is the name of Odin's spear," Trick interrupted, explaining in his typical educate-the-baby-fae voice, giving the twins and his granddaughter a stern look each. He reached to where he'd left some books stacked on the table and opened the top one to an illustration of what appeared to be an average-looking spear, aside from a few runes etched onto the spearhead. "It's extremely powerful. Said to be able to strike any target, no matter the strength or skill of the wielder."

Tamsin nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Strike any target as in pierce through any armor. Nothing -not magic or godly powers or a goddamn tank- can save you from Gungnir if it's aimed at you. If we could find it, well… getting momz back won't be a problem."

Dyson grinned. "Sweet."

Hnoss returned the expression. "Truth," she agreed. "Gungnir's so sweet that a naughty little Loki snuck into Odin's hall and ran off with it. All us Valkyries were sent after him, but we never found it. Or him." She flung an arm out dramatically. "Most frustrating hunt ever. I despise Lokis. Too clever for their own damn good, always trying to give us Valkyries the runaround just because they're jealous of our superiority and never telling anyone anything. Gersemi was lucky she was already banished."

"So what advantage do we have that the Valkyries didn't?" Lauren asked, tapping her fingers on the table in that way she did when she was deep in thought. It was a cute habit. One that, when they were dating, usually ended in Bo taking those same fingers playfully into her mouth and sucking and moving her own fingers down to-

Bo shook herself from that train of thought before her eyes flared and exposed her succubus-level libido to the entire table. Okay. Maybe she was a little hungry, she admitted to herself. But now wasn't the time for trawling the bars for take-out, and Bo knew she wouldn't be up for a feed anytime soon anyways. Not with her heart gone.

"It's not what we have. It's what Bo has," Trick announced triumphantly.

Bo blinked. "Crotch lasers?" she ventured, totally lost at this point.

Trick rolled his eyes. "You have the friendship of a Loki," he explained. "If anyone would be able to help us track down a Loki, it would be another Loki. Their minds all work the same way. It's their nature."

Bo grimaced, even as she caught Dyson's scowl and Tamsin's raised eyebrows at this information. "Yeah… not so much anymore…" she drawled out. "Kinda burned that bridge with the whole accidentally-almost-married fiasco."

Beside her, Tamsin choked on her beer in a passable imitation of Trick learning her identity earlier that evening. "Wait, what?" she coughed, icy green eyes wide and stunned. Trick and Dyson both burst out laughing across the table, and even Lauren grinned, having heard The Story. Poor Tamsin was just confused, and Hnoss disgusted.

Bo squirmed a little in her seat. "Yeah, so you know how I can kind of mind-control people with my blood?" she began.

Tamsin just blinked. "No… I did not in fact know you could mind control people with your blood," she deadpanned. "Any other superpowers I need to know about? Can you fly?"

"Nah. Just thrall," Bo chuckled. "I was kind of dating this Loki and got some of my blood into one of his cuts when he was healing me," she explained. "Then he kind of went all… weird. And then there was this Addonc and I was just wandering around, totally lost because I didn't even know my own name, and Ryan found me and told me we were dating and said we should get married, and I was sort of like, 'Okay,' and I had this dress and the Addonc was back and then Trick and Kenzi showed up and got my memories back and de-thralled Ryan and… yeah." Bo trailed off uncomfortably. "We don't talk anymore."

Tamsin didn't look impressed. "Good to know you weren't always this boring," she quipped with an eye roll.

"Look, I'll go to see him tomorrow, but I can't guarantee that he'll help," Bo pointed out. "He's a little…" She paused, searching for the best word. "...capricious."

"Yeah, that's a Loki for you," Hnoss commented sourly.

Bo ignored her. "In the meantime, the rest of you should look for information where you can," she suggested. "I'd give us a fifty-fifty chance of needing a Plan B."

"I have full access to the Dark Archives," Lauren said. "Dyson can search the Light Archives, and Trick can search his books here. Anything we can find on Gungnir."

"Odin is not the most generous of gods," Hnoss said suddenly from Bo's side, leaning over the table and nodding solemnly at those present. "I wouldn't put it past him to withhold your human's soul just because he can, but if you really can find Gungnir, he won't be able to refuse. Gersemi told me your plan. If you pull this off, I'll escort Bo to and from Valhalla myself." She glanced at Tamsin. "I don't care about any of you, but I do care about my sister. So you have my blood oath that I will help you if you succeed in finding the spear."

After that, there really wasn't much left to say, and they all made their way out into the parking lot. Tamsin had gone quiet after Hnoss spoke, her eyes swimming with a heartbreaking mixture of love and pain that took Bo's breath away every time she glanced over to her and saw it. Bo wasn't sure how to -or even if she should- break the quiet that had developed between the sisters and herself as they drove back to the crack shack in Bo's yellow convertible, but when they arrived and Tamsin marched straight into the kitchen for a fresh bottle of vodka, Bo resolved herself to another emotionally charged talk.

"Let me show you to Tamsin's bed," Bo said to Hnoss softly. "You can sleep there for tonight. Do you have a change of clothes in your car?"

The Valkyrie nodded. "I do," she confirmed, then hesitated. "I… brought Gersemi's armor with me too," she revealed. "It was taken from her with her banishment but now… I thought she'd want it back, but I guess I was wrong. She doesn't seem to want to be a Valkyrie at all now."

Tamsin's younger sister just seemed so dejected at the thought that Bo couldn't help but soften her features and voice in sympathy. "Tamsin is very proud to be a Valkyrie, Hnoss. And she's proud of you too. Did you offer her armor to her yet?"

Hnoss shook her head. "No. I wasn't sure that she wanted it."

"She'll want it," Bo promised. "Maybe not today, but one day. Thank you, for doing that for her."

The smile that illuminated Hnoss' features at this reassurance reminded Bo very much of the carefree joy displayed by Lil T, and she couldn't help but smile back. Hnoss, she mused, was very much different from her older twin, regardless that they looked the same. She was lighter, as if the years she and Tamsin both carried didn't weigh quite so heavily on her shoulders. As if tragedy hadn't reached out to touch her nearly so often. It was very bittersweet to see. The pair chatted lightly of inconsequential things as Bo showed Hnoss upstairs to Tamsin's bed, at which point the blonde thanked her and wished her and Tamsin a good night. Walking back downstairs, Bo decided that Hnoss wasn't only Tamsin: Bombshell Edition. She was also Tamsin: Light. The same razor sass with half the violence. If Hnoss stuck around, Bo could definitely see them becoming good friends. Kenzi would love her, and Bo genuinely liked her.

Not as much as she liked Tamsin though, she admitted to herself. These past few days… Tamsin had been so good to her. Good for her. Bo honestly didn't know what she would have done if Tamsin hadn't been there. There'd always been something about the Valkyrie that just made Bo feel alive, and that was especially true now that they were in such close proximity with each other. She'd hardly let Tamsin out of her sight for even a moment since Dyson had carried her back to the house unconscious. Vaguely, Bo thought she should feel bad about smothering the poor girl, but she couldn't really bring herself to care. Tamsin was… well, she was something to Bo, and whatever that something was, it was important.

"Tamsin?" Bo called out as she entered the kitchen, only to find it devoid of vodka-touting blondes.

"Here," came the response as a lazy hand appeared over the back of the couch. "Want some of the good stuff, succulette?"

Bo smiled and walked to the living room. Tamsin was curled up against the arm of the couch, her bare feet tucked up under her body and her hair loosed from its bun as she squinted at Bo like she couldn't really see her clearly.

Though, judging from the amount of vodka missing from the bottle that had been full fifteen minutes ago, Bo was willing to bet that Tamsin couldn't see her clearly. Still, Bo took the bottle from Tamsin as she offered it and took a long pull, grimacing as the alcohol burned its way down her throat. She sat down on the opposite side of the couch, pulling her legs up to mirror Tamsin's pose and staring at her, then taking another drink. "Will you tell me about how you met Hnoss?" she asked softly.

Tamsin, who had been leaning her head against the back of the couch and watching Bo drink, blinked at being addressed. Then she smiled wryly. "Caught that I didn't grow up with her, did you?"

Bo took another drink and nodded, before offering the bottle back. Tamsin obliged and took a swig.

"I didn't grow up as Gersemi, Freya's daughter," Tamsin explained, handing the bottle over to Bo once more. "I was just Thomasina. I grew up training with all the other Valkyries, but as a ward of Odin. I was trained from before I could walk to serve him and him alone, and I was good. Better than the other Valkyrie children. And I was proud. Proud of my skills, proud of my power, proud to serve…" She trailed off, her eyes alight with the memory of past glory. "When I began my first life cycle on Midgard, I was overzealous. I reveled in the glory of battle and death, and how I was desired by the warriors on both sides even until the final moment where I claimed their souls. But as the years and life cycles passed… I wasn't so eager to please anymore. I wasn't proud. I looked around me and only saw emptiness and death and I was… angry. You've never seen such anger, Bo," Tamsin whispered, haunt once again clouding her features.

Chest aching, Bo reached out and squeezed Tamsin's hand, who returned the gesture almost immediately even if she didn't otherwise respond. She could imagine a young Tamsin, fierce and angry at the world for reasons she couldn't understand, cutting her way through a battle she wasn't even sure she wanted to fight in… and it hurt to imagine her in such distress.

"I lost myself in my anger, and I did some… terrible things that I'm not proud of," Tamsin confessed, looking away. "All Valkyries serve the gods in Valhalla, but I… I was different. I was Odin's most trusted lieutenant. If he wanted a battle to be swayed to the victor of his choice -even if that cause was not a just one- I made it so. If he wanted the soul of a particular hero for the ranks in Valhalla, I saw him slain. If one of my sister Valkyries displeased him, I was the one he sent to hunt them down to make sure they died very slowly, and brought him back their soul. And after a while it just became unbearable for me to live that way, but I couldn't betray him, because I was his. His weapon, his slave, his interrogator... I wasn't me. I was whatever he wanted and nothing else. I didn't know how to be anything else."

At this point, Tamsin was quietly crying, her pinched face angled away from Bo so that she couldn't see the tears even if she could hear them. Though Bo felt sick at what she was hearing, she felt even sicker knowing that Tamsin was expecting yelling or blame. Bo would give her neither of these things. Instead, she crawled closer to her and grasped her hips, pulling Tamsin into her lap and holding her tightly, though she didn't dare interrupt the story. Bo wanted to hear it. Good, bad; all of it.

In response to this tender treatment, Tamsin paused in her narrative for a moment to press herself tightly into Bo's body and bury her face in her hair, breathing deeply. It wasn't long, however, until she'd relaxed enough into the succubus' hold to continue. "That's when I made the deal with Trick," she said. "I'd always known the basics of how I'd come to be in Odin's possession -that my mother had made a deal for my father's soul in exchange for mine. What I assumed -and I was right about- was that part of the deal was that Odin would take care of me, and make sure I wasn't mistreated. Any other Valkyrie that betrayed Valhalla in such a way as to give away a soul meant for Odin and Freya would have… well, they wouldn't have died happily. But Odin can't hurt me unless I try to hurt him, so I was banished instead, and with the extra time Trick gave me, I wandered the Earth alone just… being a drunken bitch, I guess." Tamsin laughed a little at this, shifting in Bo's lap. "But about a year after I was banished, Hnoss shows up at the door of the inn I was staying at just like she fucking did this morning, looking so much like me and claiming that she was the daughter of Freya and that I was her older twin sister Gersemi… It was the biggest mindfuck I've ever experienced that didn't involve Acacia casting doubt on me." Tamsin shook her head in affectionate exasperation.

Despite herself, Bo giggled at the thought of just how confused Tamsin must have been. She'd hardly known Hnoss for a day, and she already knew that while the Valkyrie was many things, subtle was not one of them. Tamsin squeezed her fondly at the sound.

"I met Freya that day," she continued in a voice that was much softer, and infinitely sadder. "She explained to me that my father, Odr, had been cursed into the shape of a sea serpent and eventually died from it, and that his soul couldn't rest with her in Folkvangr without Odin's permission, as Odr hadn't died a warrior's death. Odin knew Freya was pregnant, so he asked for her firstborn child with Odr, and she agreed. But when she gave birth, there were two of us. I was given to Odin, and Hnoss stayed with Freya. Odin… didn't want me to ever know who I was, though. I was powerful, but I would never be a good tool if I resented him for keeping me from my family. Thomasina… it means 'twin'," Tamsin scoffed. "Mother's… not the creative type. Hnoss and Gersemi both mean 'treasure', did you know?"

Bo just shook her head in the negative. She hadn't known.

"Seidr is an old type magic that Freya uses. Kind of like, fate-weaving," Tamsin continued after a momentary pause while she gathered her thoughts. "With it… she changed my appearance just enough that Hnoss wouldn't look like my clone. And then I… wasn't Gersemi anymore. I was Thomasina. And Odin decreed that no one would ever know that Thomasina had once been Gersemi so long as I belonged to him. I kind of flipped when Freya just showed up and tweaked me back to what I was born to be."

From where they were clutching at the material of her shirt at the small of her back, Bo could feel Tamsin's fists clench briefly in anger. Tentatively, Bo moved one of her hands to stroke soothingly down Tamsin's spine, wary of upsetting her with an unwelcome touch. Thankfully, the Valkyrie in her arms almost instantly relaxed beneath her fingers, releasing angry tension with a heavy breath that ruffled Bo's hair slightly. Bo understood the anger. She'd felt a lesser form of it when she'd learned that she'd been left with humans, never to know what she really was until it was too late. But Aife, at least, had done it for a better reason than 'my daughter's new owner told me to do it'.

Tamsin sighed in a more contented way before continuing. "Since I was banished, Hnoss and Freya figured they could bend the rules a little to sneak away to visit me, since I wasn't really Odin's bitch anymore," Tamsin narrated. "Hnoss… she'd lived her whole life in Folkvangr, and she was so excited to see me, and the world," She laughed a little at the memory, swiping a few tears from her eyes before looping her arm right back around Bo again. "I couldn't be mad at her when she'd waited for over two thousand years to meet me. But Freya… I couldn't forgive. I think I broke her heart a little that day, with some of the things I said," Tamsin lamented. "Hnoss would sneak away to visit me for a few weeks at a time quite often during my banishment. We've known each other for well over a thousand years now, and I really do love her. But… I've only met Freya three times, not including making her promise to take care of momz a few days ago. It's harder for her as a goddess to get away, and I haven't exactly been very welcoming... even after she explained everything and begged for my forgiveness."

This, too, was something Bo understood to a lesser degree. "Do you want to forgive her?" she asked quietly, speaking for the first time since Tamsin had started spilling her history.

Silence. Then, "What's the point?" Tamsin sighed. "I doubt I'll ever see her again. She's a goddess. Time is… different, for her. To her, I haven't got long to live at all."

"From what I understand of what you're telling me, this Falling thing you did took away Odin's ownership of you, Tamsin," Bo offered hesitantly. "So Freya can talk to you again. She won't have to sneak away anymore, and if… if you're going to die, she's going to want to see you, Tammy."

Tamsin trembled with a suppressed sob. "I… I want to forgive her, I do," she choked, her voice breaking, "but… she gave me away, Bo! She gave me away like I was a thing that didn't matter and I had to wait two thousand years for Hnoss to finally meet someone who actually loved me. Freya just stood by and watched as I drowned in an ocean of blood. How do you just forgive something like that?"

Now, Bo was crying. She hurt because Tamsin -her Tamsin- hurt so very badly for so very long, and the beast inside her wanted to rage and slay everyone who'd ever hurt her, but Bo knew she couldn't. That it wouldn't help. That more blood wasn't something that Tamsin needed right now, because despite her fierce fighting Valkyrie spirit, Tamsin's heart was incredibly gentle underneath its conditioned shell. It was beautiful. She was beautiful. And it broke Bo's heart.

"Forgiving people… you don't do it for them," Bo eventually said, stroking down Tamsin's spine again since the Valkyrie seemed to like it. "You do it for you. What Freya did, she didn't do it to hurt you. She made sure you'd be safe, in her own way, even though she was incredibly selfish and so wrong; and she tried to be a part of your life as soon as she found a way to do it. She's helping Kenzi -the woman who replaced her as your mother- to try and make it up to you. She's so far from perfect Tamsin, but Freya is still your mother. You don't have to love her, and you don't have to forgive her, but you can if you want to. You can accept Freya for all that she is. Selfish and shortsighted, but also clearly capable of great love. If we hated everyone who'd ever hurt us by mistake, we wouldn't have very many people to love, now would we?" Bo counseled. God knows she had enough to forgive Aife for. But Aife was who she was, and Bo could either accept that or live without it, and Bo didn't want to hate her mother.

"I'm not like you, Bo," Tamsin whispered. "I'm not a good person. What if I can't do it?"

"Then don't," Bo responded immediately. "You have a choice, and choosing not to forgive Freya doesn't make you a bad person. But Tamsin…" Reluctantly, Bo pulled herself slightly away from Tamsin's body so she could reach up with both hands and touch Tamsin's face, delicately cradling her jaw in one hand and smoothing away tears with the other. Tamsin looked back at her with her beautiful eyes welling with sadness, anger, and self-loathing. Bo met her gaze earnestly, warmth suffusing within her as she looked at her. Tamsin was beautiful, even when she was crying. "Tamsin, you're not a bad person," she told her firmly. "We all have a past, and you're not the only one who's killed people because killing was the only thing you knew how to do. It's who you are now that matters; and Tamsin, you're the funniest, most loyal and most badass person I could ever ask for in my life, and I know Kenzi felt the same way. You're so incredible, Tamsin, and I don't understand how anyone could let you go."

New tears were rolling down Tamsin's cheeks now, but these tears were borne by an expression that was a mixture of awe, hope, and an almost unfathomably deep affection that momentarily robbed Bo of breath.

And the sudden kiss that followed certainly didn't help her catch it. Thousands of years of practice had made Tamsin an excellent kisser, and Bo's gasp of surprise only allowed for the kiss to deepen. But once Bo's moment of shock had passed, she immediately melted into Tamsin's hold and allowed herself to enjoy Tamsin's talented lips. She tasted like vodka and tears, but also like chocolate chapstick and something uniquely Tamsin that Bo hadn't tasted since Yule. Bo hadn't realized how much she'd missed that taste. It was a sweet kiss full of sadness and gratitude, and Bo couldn't help but lean into it eagerly.

The part of her that wasn't totally consumed in the moment was surprised by this turn of events. Tamsin had hated her so much when they'd first met -had even tried to take her to her father to fulfill a bounty she'd accepted centuries ago. And when she was reborn, Tamsin was just some bratty kid that Kenzi had sort of… adopted, and Bo had been too wrapped up in her own life to even give her a passing glance. Bo hadn't treated Tamsin very well even after she'd grown, skittish around the powerful Fae that constantly threw her off balance with her bitchy attitude and acts of incredible devotion. Tamsin had always elicited strong emotions from Bo, starting from the very first day they'd met when they'd each done their utmost to crawl under each others' skins. The succubus could never decide if she wanted to slap that smug smirk off of Tamsin's stupid face, or simply bend her forcibly over a table and pound it out of her that way. There was no middle ground with them. It was entirely disconcerting… and frightening. Bo truly couldn't hate the person Tamsin had become, so she'd avoided her like the plague. Bo loved Lauren and Dyson and how could a heart possibly stretch so thin as to love even one more?

The avoidance had been a mistake. One Bo had sought to rectify from the moment Tamsin had returned from taking Kenzi's soul away to the safety of Valhalla, and had never regretted fixing even once. Lo and behold, look where that decision had led. This… whatever they were doing. That thing that always happened when they couldn't pretend to hate each other anymore. And… Bo knew she loved Tamsin. How much, and in what capacity however, she didn't know.

Though if Tamsin kept doing that thing with her tongue, Bo could certainly make an educated guess.

When Tamsin and Bo finally broke their kiss due to a desperate need for air, Bo immediately squeezed her eyes shut and tensed, bracing herself on Tamsin's shoulder as she struggled to contain her desire to push Tamsin down onto the couch cushions and feed, groaning with the strain of it. Seeing this reaction, Tamsin tensed too. "I… sorry. I didn't mean to upset you," she mumbled, attempting to pull away.

Bo didn't let her move an inch from where she'd rotated from sitting across Bo's lap to straddling it during the course of their kiss. She couldn't bear to lose this proximity now. "You didn't," she gasped through gritted teeth. "Just… gimme a sec here."

Tamsin stilled. "Bo," she ventured in a soft tone. "When was the last time you fed?"

Bo nearly whimpered at the word fed. "From you," she answered immediately. The back-and-forth she'd done to a human Morrigan during her final confrontation with Massimo didn't count, as she'd given it all back, and the memory of Tamsin's incredible chi was currently occupying the very forefront of her mind. Before her death, Tamsin had tasted like winter. Winter, and blackberries, and bone-deep fear. When Tamsin goaded her into taking a snack to heal from Massimo's first attack though, that fear had been replaced with a sort of peaceful happiness just a few steps short of contentment. Even before, Bo had never tasted anything so powerful as Tamsin, but now? Now, Bo would probably sell her soul to have that chi bottled so that she could keep it in her fridge for midnight snacks. She could practically taste it now, with Tamsin so close and distinctly aroused from their kiss, and it was so not helping her focus to be thinking about it like this but it was just so good…

Fortunately (or rather, unfortunately) this answer seemed to piss Tamsin off and she jerked in surprise, snapping Bo's mind back into focus. "Bo!" Tamsin exclaimed, grabbing her by the upper arms and squeezing firmly to grab her attention. "That was days ago, and only a little, which you used up to heal! Why haven't you fed?"

Startled by the sudden anger, Bo felt her lips quiver as the pain of the last few days washed over her in a sickly wave. "I… I didn't want to," she whimpered, turning her face away from the intensity of Tamsin's stern stare. "I didn't want to even think about sex when Kenzi…" She trailed off waveringly, and Tamsin released her grip on her arms to hug her again, shushing her.

"I'm sorry Bo. I shouldn't have snapped at you," she said, carding her fingers through Bo's hair, "but you could really hurt yourself if you stop feeding."

Bo knew this, but still felt nauseous at the thought of having sex with some random douchebag right now even if she knew Kenzi would yell at her for being an idiot and not feeding. Bo's heart was gone, and nothing was worse than sex that only left you feeling hollow and dirty inside, even if it would sate her hunger. All she could do was shake her head 'no' to Tamsin's admonishment. She was so hungry, but she could go longer without. She had before.

"C'mon Bo, please?" Tamsin begged. "Kenzi would be the first person shoving you into a random bar right now."

Clutching tighter to the woman straddling her lap, Bo shook her head again. Her body might need sex, but she didn't want it. As much as Tamsin was helping her cope with losing the best part of herself, Bo just wasn't ready to resume her normal succubus activities just yet. She wouldn't be able to enjoy herself. She had no heart left to use. She wouldn't be able to handle touching some stranger and being touched by them and feeling so very vulnerable when she didn't trust anyone right now. Well, except for Tamsin. Tamsin, with the delicious, powerful chi and silky soft hair and talented tongue and she just smelled so good and…

No. Focus. Bad succubus.

"Take from me then," Tamsin told her, voice quavering slightly with enough feeling that Bo realized that her current state of hunger was truly upsetting the Valkyrie. "Just a little, Bo. Please."

There was probably a very good reason that she should say no to Tamsin's offer, Bo thought, but she really couldn't think of one in that moment. So with a pause followed by a nod, she sat up fully and reached up to Tamsin's face with one thoughtful hand. Tamsin didn't move or even flinch when Bo ran her fingertips over one high cheekbone, studying her beautiful features and noting the concern in her eyes before she reached farther to pull Tamsin's face to her own, her fingers tangling in silky blonde hair. This kiss was slower than the first, but Bo still enjoyed it more than she probably should have, indulging herself in a blissful few minutes of pure and gentle kisses before finally giving in to her need and pulling back slightly to taste Tamsin's chi, shivering in delight as winter-blackberry-happiness rushed through her. Already, she could feel her body repairing the minor bruises she'd gained in her final face-off with Massimo and filling with a vitality that she'd been desperately missing these past few days. Tamsin tasted like magic. Bo probably could have spent an eternity feeding off her, but she made to pull away after she deemed she'd taken enough.

"Don't," Tamsin said against Bo's lips, her hands flying to cradle her face and prevent her from moving away. "Take what you want. I'm okay."

Thus given permission, Bo groaned her abject approval of the statement and crushed their lips back together fervently before returning to taking Tamsin's chi, ridiculously glad that the reborn Valkyrie seemed to have a virtually unlimited supply of life energy. A lesser Fae would have started feeling faint by now, but not Tamsin. She was still balanced perfectly across Bo's body; and while running her hands over Tamsin's cheeks and sides, Bo couldn't detect her shaking with exhaustion at all. So Bo took and took until she finally stopped, giggling and giddy with eyes a vivid electric blue.

"Better?" Tamsin questioned, flushed and slightly out of breath.

Bo grinned. "Have I told you how good you taste? Because you should know how good you taste," she giggled.

The Valkyrie smirked. "I think I can guess there, hotpants," she chuckled, smoothing a stray strand of hair away from Bo's forehead before growing more solemn, regarding the succubus' features intently. "You can have my chi whenever you want it Bo," she said seriously. "It's okay if you don't want to do a full feed or to feed off strangers right now, but you do need to feed Bo. You could get hurt if you don't. So please, take whatever you want from me, whenever you want or need it, and keep yourself healthy. Please."

The genuine care in Tamsin's words touched Bo deeply, and she almost found herself wanting to cry again because of them. Instead, she settled for leaning forwards and planting a short, chaste kiss onto Tamsin's wonderful mouth and leaning her forehead up against Tamsin's once she'd finished. "I promise," she sighed. "Thank you, Tamsin. I… just thank you."

Tamsin hugged her. "I should be thanking you, Bo," she confessed. "I owe you so much more than an occasional chi snack. Coming here and meeting you: it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I never would have been strong enough to fully separate myself from Valhalla if you hadn't shown me what it was like to truly be free. So the thanks tonight go to you, I think"

"To both of us," Bo sighed, choking on her own emotions as she planted a kiss on each of Tamsin's cheeks and then her lips again, clutching her tightly because this was Tamsin and when had she become the most precious person in Bo's life? "The thanks go to both of us."

Seemingly dazed by the display of affection, Tamsin just hummed her agreement and closed her eyes in content, joined shortly by Bo. Bo couldn't stay how long they stayed frozen like that, but somehow, it didn't seem like it was long enough.


	5. Navigator

The next morning found Bo critically assessing what she was vaguely sure was one of her wet dreams as Hnoss preened under the attention. Tamsin, on the other had, was not impressed by her current state of being.

"This feels vaguely degrading," Tamsin muttered, crossing her arms petulantly as Bo shot her a lascivious grin and raised an eyebrow teasingly. "Why are we dressing up to please some dude again?"

"Because you clean up so nice!" Bo laughed. "And Ryan likes blondes."

Lokis and Valkyries didn't get along, according to Hnoss. Bo wasn't keen on leaving the twins behind while she went to talk to Ryan, however, so she decided on bypassing that natural reaction, succubus-style. Plan of attack?

Cleavage.

Bo had told both Tamsin and Hnoss to dress to impress for this outing, and she wasn't disappointed in the results of this request. With both Valkyries standing in front of her waiting to pass inspection, Bo rather proudly thought that there was no way Ryan tell them to leave without hearing them out first. Hnoss and Gersemi, she found, were known as the goddesses of desire and beauty for a reason.

Hnoss had come downstairs as a vision in red, wearing a tailored crimson pantsuit beneath which she was very obviously not wearing a shirt. Or a bra for that matter. Her hair was once again curled and pinned up in an elaborate updo, with shiny gold thread running through it to accent her gold eyeshadow, dark lashes, and wicked crimson smile. Her strappy heels were high enough to be worthy of Kenzi. It was… hot. Definitely hot, though Bo wasn't really surprised at the outfit, nor the lewd posture which Hnoss immediately assumed before her, blowing Bo a kiss and laughing as the succubus faked a swoon. Tamsin, on the other hand, had haughtily swept into the room in an extremely tight white pencil dress that left little to the imagination and red ballet flats, her waist encircled by a thin gold chain and her hair down and loose. She'd done her makeup to match her sister's, and together, they were a vision. The involuntary blue flash of Bo's eyes had made Tamsin smirk with self-satisfaction for a moment until she remembered that she was upset for being forced out of her jeans and leather jacket. Then she'd begun her steady stream of complaints, mostly expressing her displeasure with being used as a sexual object, even if it was to help save Kenzi.

Both Bo and Hnoss totally ignored Tamsin's protests and proceeded to make their way out to Bo's car, Tamsin being dragged along by the hand by her exuberant sister. Hnoss, it so happened, delighted in any opportunity to use her body to wield power over men. She jokingly told Bo that she'd have liked to have been born a succubus, but -alas- had to settle for being a total badass instead.

Somehow, between Hnoss' attitude, Bo's charm powers, and Tamsin's 'girl only needs ten minutes' philosophy, Bo suspected that telling them 'no' would require a positively Herculean feat of willpower on Ryan's part. In this moment, driving towards Ryan's workshop with two beautiful blondes bickering in the back seat, Bo felt more hopeful about bringing Kenzi back than she had in days.

"Alright ladies," she said once they'd arrived and stepped from the car. "It's showtime."

Tamsin sighed and rolled her neck, popping it. "Well, let's get this over with," she muttered, and adjusted her posture so that she was carrying herself in a way that best presented her perfect form in the tight white dress, smoothing her features into that smug, fake smile she wore whenever she made an attempt at geniality. Bo wasn't sure if she was surprised or not at the level of skill Tamsin was displaying at the art of presenting herself as someone simultaneously both harmless and extremely desireable. The Tamsin she knew was more an unapologetic hardass than a true femme fatale. When she thought of Tamsin, she thought of tight jeans and curve-hugging leather and a don't-give-a-shit attitude bigger than even her ego, which was saying something. Intellectually, Bo knew that Tamsin was very old and had spent the majority of her life going incognito in a human world where such dress and behavior would have been highly frowned upon for a woman, but it was still a little shocking to her to see just how well Tamsin knew how to wear a dress and a sweet smile when she wanted to.

But Bo had work to do. Shaking herself from her musings, she strode to the door of the workshop and let herself in, immediately weaving her way between various contraptions with an ease born of familiarity, following the sound of a bandsaw on something metallic. She was flanked by Tamsin and Hnoss, each elegantly prowling slightly behind her as she led the way like they were a trio of extremely dangerous models. Bo stopped a few feet behind where Ryan was working with the saw, jutting her hip out and putting on her most sultry smile. She waited until the Loki paused momentarily in his work before speaking. "I see things in here haven't changed much."

Startled, Ryan jumped and spun around, smiling widely once he caught sight of her. That smile instantly dropped once he caught sight of Bo's escort. "You brought Valkyries to my secret sanctum?" he exclaimed, yanking off his safety goggles. "Not cool, Bo!"

Bo rolled her eyes. "Relax, Ryan," she said. "They don't bite. Not unless you ask nicely."

At this point, the fact that the invading Valkyries happened to be a pair of very attractive twins seemed to register to the Loki, and he grinned at them. Though the suspicion never left his eyes. "In that case, welcome to my humble abode," Ryan said with a flourish of a hand to the chaos around them before focusing back on the succubus. "What are you doing here, Bo? I thought we had an agreement to never see each other again."

"We're going on a little treasure hunt, and we need your help," Bo told him, taking a step forward and running a finger over his ruffled shirt collar. She smiled sweetly, peeking up at him through her eyelashes. "I seem to recall you enjoyed our little adventures. You in?"

Ryan's face momentarily lit with excitement before his eyes flickered back to Hnoss and Tamsin, and he became more cautious. "As lovely as your friends are," he replied, "they're no friends of mine. So how about you tell me the truth about what you're looking for and why."

Well, at least Ryan had decided they were hot enough that he wasn't willing kick them out right away, Bo thought wryly. Deciding that a more blunt approach might work better, Bo nodded at him and took a small step back. "Kenzi's dead," she said flatly. "Her soul is in Valhalla, and I'm going to get her back."

Ryan's eyes widened at the news, fully aware of just how important the little human was to Bo and his quick mind already analyzing her statement and all its implications. "The Valkyries are here to ferry her soul for you," he deduced. "How did you convince them?" He was paying close attention to them now, running his eyes over every inch of their immaculate bodies. Hnoss gave him a playful wink, while Tamsin gave him her patented 'I-may-or-may-not-stab-you-in-your-sleep' smile that Bo had grown very familiar with in the first weeks of their acquaintance, but hadn't actually seen in quite some time. It was actually a little weird to see Tamsin display such passive-aggressive hostility again.

"I have my ways," Bo said shortly.

Ryan laughed. "Oh, I remember," he assured her. "But how will you convince Odin and Freya to let her go, hm? You're cute, but not that cute."

Bo scowled at him, but quickly capitulated. "I've got Freya's agreement already," she informed him. "It's Odin I need to convince. That's where you come in. I need you to help me find the Gungnir."

Shocked, Ryan choked on his own words and fell prey to a short coughing fit before breaking into laughter. "Oh, you never do things by halves, do you Bo?" he chortled, tossing an arm over her shoulder and leading her towards the corner of the vast room that held most of his stored and completed inventions.

Bo smirked back at him. "Isn't that why you like me?" she asked.

"That and the excellent sex," the Loki agreed amicably as he stopped in front of a set of metal cabinets. He then turned and regarded Bo seriously. "As it so happens, I can help you Bo. But it won't be for free," he warned her.

Bo nodded. "I'd thought as much," she admitted, "and I understand. What do you want?"

Ryan gave her his trademarked rakish grin. "My price is this: if you find the Gungnir, you bring it here before you bring it to Valhalla so that I can make impressions of the runework on the spearhead. The dwarves that created it died thousands of years ago, and left no records of any of their work, which I'd very much like to learn from" he explained. "Deal?"

"Deal." That, Bo could agree to without hesitation.

Ryan turned to Tamsin and Hnoss. "As for you two," he told them, "I'm afraid you'll have to leave, as much of a shame as it is to send such lovely creatures away. But I won't have Odin's dogs hearing what I'm about to say."

Hnoss scowled blackly at the man, but did not object. She turned on heel and flounced away, hips swaying seductively as she went. "I'll be in the car, Bo darling," she tossed over her shoulder without a second glance.

Tamsin, however, did not make a move to leave. "I don't work for Odin anymore. I'd like to stay," she said evenly, with her features carefully smoothed and one hand propped casually on a cocked hip.

"Valkyries don't leave the service of Valhalla," Ryan scoffed. "Though I'm flattered you think I'm handsome enough to be stupid."

Hearing this, Bo cringed, waiting for the explosion of angry sass that she was sure was coming. Tamsin had never dealt with backtalk well (Bo seemed to recall being shoved into a wall for it on more than one occasion.) and Bo seriously doubted this record would be improved when it regarded separating Tamsin from herself. Still reeling from the loss of Kenzi, neither of them were keen on being apart, even if they never said it out loud.

The explosion never came. Instead, Tamsin merely turned her face away from them and allowed it to darken momentarily before her simultaneously magnificent and terrifying black wings burst from her back, fluttering slightly as she flexed them in the open air. As always, seeing Tamsin's wings caused Bo's breath to catch as she gazed at them in awe. They were just so… alien and beautiful. Gorgeous even with their malevolent coloration gained from Tamsin's Fall. Bo thought she would never get tired of looking at them. Never get tired of looking at her. The coal-colored feathers of her wings contrasted startlingly with Tamsin's white dress, and Bo rather thought that she looked like a true angel of death in this moment.

Beside her, Ryan was studying Tamsin's exposed form with an uncharacteristically inscrutable expression. "You've Fallen," he stated.

Tamsin, allowing her face to return to mostly normal aside from the heavy shadows clinging around her eyes, turned back to him and nodded. "I have," she confirmed, almost eerily serene. "My loyalty no longer lies with Odin."

For a few long moments, the pair stared at each other, and Bo found herself holding her breath for something -she wasn't sure exactly what- to happen. But nothing did. Instead, Ryan eventually gave Tamsin a solemn nod of acceptance before turning back to a slightly lost Bo and ignoring the Valkyrie completely. "Okay," he said, getting straight down to business. "Here's the deal. The guy who stole the Gungnir -Icarus- wasn't working alone," Ryan revealed. "The theft was planned by a group of about fifteen elder Lokis who had beef with Odin for some reason or another. Not important. What is important is that Icarus betrayed them and ran off with the spear."

As he spoke, Ryan flung open the cabinet doors to reveal shelves cluttered with a vast array of various gadgets and gizmos for which Bo could find no discernable purpose. He dug through them carelessly, as if the fruits of his labor weren't worth very much once he'd finished and lost the joy he found in creating them. Tamsin stepped over to Bo's other side and watched silently through darkened eyes, looking almost sad. Bo grabbed her hand and smiled at her, but the smile she received in return was still bittersweet, as if Tamsin was imagining a beautiful dream that she had no hope of ever achieving.

"Aha! There you are," Ryan muttered as he finally emerged from the chaos of the cabinet holding what appeared to be a ball of silver string about the size of a tennis ball, which he then handed off to Bo, who somehow felt even more confused than before.

"Uh, thanks?" she said, eyeing the ball warily. If there was anything she'd learned from dating Ryan, it was that the things he made often looked harmless, but rarely were in reality.

Knowing this, the Loki chuckled. "That there is what's going to get you to Gungnir and back," he informed her. "With both the Lokis and Valkyries after him, Icarus would have gone to ground in the one place neither group could hope to find him on their own. After all, it takes the tool of a Loki-" He gestured at the ball of silver string. "-to navigate the Labyrinth. But it takes the fighting skill of a Valkyrie to survive it, and we all know that those two kinds would never work together."

Although she wasn't entirely sure what exactly Ryan was implying with his talk of a Labyrinth, Bo still smiled gratefully at him even as Tamsin groaned in protest. "You've got to be fucking kidding me. Gungnir is in the Labyrinth?" the blonde exclaimed.

"The very center of it!" Ryan said cheerfully. "I'd never survive the trip, but Bo and a pair of Valkyries? I'd even give you a fifty-fifty chance of escaping without serious mauling!"

"Um, what's a Labyrinth?" Bo asked, growling more alarmed the longer the conversation continued.

Tamsin shook her head. "It's gonna be a pain in my ass, is what it is," she grumbled. "We need to go see Trick. He'll know more than I do and explain it better anyways."

"Okay," Bo agreed. She turned back to Ryan, still clutching the ball of silver string that she now knew for sure was much like the music box lamp they'd once been trapped in -far more than it seemed. "Thank you, Ryan," she told him. "Really."

The Loki waved her off. "Just remember our deal, and we're square," he told her before pointing at the ball of string and warning her, "Don't lose the Navigator in the Labyrinth, or you'll never find your way to the center." He then favored her with a sad sort of smile. "Goodbye, Bo. If you make it back in one piece, bring your pretty Valkyries with you when you bring the Gungnir. You do know how I like to watch you play with the blondes."

He winked at Tamsin, who pulled a face. Bo decided not to comment, and just tucked the silver ball into her purse. Bo then nodded her agreement to Ryan's request and walked quickly with Tamsin from the workshop. The moment they stepped outside, the Valkyrie gave an exaggerated full-body shudder, even her wings rustling. "Ugh," she complained, making a face that suggested she'd just smelled something revolting. "Being that polite was giving me hives."

Bo burst into full belly laughter, unbelievably tickled by the fact that Tamsin was just so Tamsin, even when she was forcing herself to act like a decent human being. Bo laughed long and hard; but when she finally calmed enough to look up at Tamsin again, she had to quickly school her features so she wouldn't show her shock. Tamsin was looking at her more softly then than Bo had ever seen her look at anyone, and she was smiling a shy smile that Bo had never seen from her before. She was looking at Bo like her whole day had just been turned around because of her laugh alone, and Bo felt her heart flutter wildly as she met Tamsin's shadowy gaze. Somehow, the skeletal features that should have muted Tamsin's expressions only seemed to amplify them in her view. Bo too was bursting with feeling in this moment, and felt an irrational urge to just grab Tamsin and kiss every inch of her that she could reach.

Now wasn't the time or place though, nor was Bo sure that such an action would be welcomed. Especially in the current circumstances. In lieu of this, Bo settled for beaming at the blonde, before sighing, "You're beautiful Tamsin, did you know that? Everything you are. You're just… beautiful."

For a moment, Tamsin seemed taken aback by the complement before she flushed away in an uncharacteristic moment of shyness. "Maybe, but not as beautiful as you," she returned quietly, shuffling awkwardly in place.

If possible, Bo's smile widened. She'd never seen her usually confident, self-assured Tamsin act like this before, but she liked it. It was adorable. Pleased, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her, planting a tender kiss on Tamsin's cheek before pulling away just far enough that they weren't touching anymore. She then fondly ran a hand through the feathers at the base of one of Tamsin's wings. The Valkyrie visibly shivered at the touch, her aura spiking unexpectedly brilliantly as she leaned into Bo's hands. "Is this okay?" Bo asked softly, wondering at the sheer strength of the reaction she had elicited but still not wanting to stop.

Tamsin's eyes had already fluttered closed, and she didn't open them to answer. "Yes. It feels nice."

Encouraged, Bo continued to gently push her fingers through Tamsin's feathers. They were unbelievably soft, and glistened in the sunlight like tiny shards of obsidian. Bo could feel Tamsin's flight muscles quivering beneath her palms, and she smiled at the obvious effect this was having on her -she could both see it in her aura and hear it as Tamsin hummed in pleasure, leaning heavily into Bo's body as she lost herself in bliss. In this moment, with Tamsin's guard totally down, Bo felt like she held Tamsin's very soul in the palms of her hands. Her eyes flashed an involuntary blue as she recognized the trust she was being shown with this small act of surrender.

They stayed this way for several minutes, but the ball of silver string that sat heavily in Bo's bag was a constant reminder of the fact that they had a greater mission right now. Reluctantly, Bo ceased her ministrations and planted her hands on Tamsin's shapely waist instead, squeezing softly. Finally opening her eyes and collecting herself some, the blonde pulled her wings back into her body.

"So you do have magic hands," Tamsin teased, the effect somewhat lost with her breathless tone.

Bo smiled at her. "Come on, flatterer," she husked, her voice strained with her struggle with her libido. "I don't want to know where Hnoss would wander off to if we leave her alone for much longer." That, and Bo didn't think Tamsin would be best pleased if she shoved her up against the wall of the building and took her then and there. But Bo thought it was more tactful to keep that thought to herself.

Bo didn't give Tamsin a chance to respond either way, already having looped an arm around her slim waist and starting to tug her back towards the parking lot where they'd left the car. She paused, however, when she felt the stickiness of blood against her forearm. Alarmed, she took a quick step back to look and the damage and winced at the two long tears through the back of the previously pristine white dress. The splits in the skin above her shoulder blades from where Tamsin had released her wings were oozing beads of blood, staining the white fabric a gory red around the frayed edges.

Seeing this, Bo shook her head sadly. "Oh Tamsin, what have you done to yourself?" she breathed, pressing gentle fingers just to the side of one of the injuries. "Does it… does it hurt?"

Sheepishly, the Valkyrie shrugged. "When I was very young, it did; but I'm more than used to it by now. I'll be fully healed in an hour or so," she said lightly, before adding somewhat mournfully, "It does tend to ruin my clothes though."

"And this dress makes your ass look so good too," Bo lamented with her, making her laugh lightly. She gave Tamsin's back a sympathetic stroke before returning to her position at the blonde's side and taking her hand, not wanting to cause any unnecessary pain by returning her arm to Tamsin's waist. "Let's go see Trick, because I can't wait to hear the explanation for why Kenzi's only hope is a ball of string."

"Baby Fae," Tamsin teased as they resumed their walk to the car.

"Senior citizen," Bo shot right back, not phased in the least.

Tamsin scoffed in derision. "I could still kick your cute little ass, you know," she pointed out with a dangerous grin.

Faking a horrified expression, Bo gasped. "Forgive me, o fairest of goddesses!" she cried out, "Show mercy, for I am not worthy to bask in thy light, Lady Gersemi!"

"You are so lucky I like you," Tamsin deadpanned.

Bo grinned and bumped her with her hip. "I know."


	6. What Friends Do

Tamsin had refused to tell Hnoss what Ryan had said to them until they returned to the crack shack for new (less bloody) clothes and met with the others back to the Dal; but witnessing Hnoss' reaction to the word 'Labyrinth' now that they were there, Bo had to admit that it had been a good call. The Valkyrie had simply stood from their table and marched straight to the bar. Bo was pretty sure she'd only ever seen Tamsin make vodka disappear that fast before.

She'd called the others on their drive back so that Lauren, Dyson, and Trick were all waiting for them at the bar, and both Bo and Tamsin lost no time in relaying what had occurred at Ryan's workshop to the others. The ball of silver string that the Loki had called a Navigator was resting innocently in the middle of the table. While the others had reacted better than Hnoss had for the most part, none of the responses to Ryan's information that Bo saw were very good. Dyson had actually growled.

"So… What's a Labyrinth? And why is it giving Trick angst-face?" the succubus asked, drumming her fingers on the tabletop.

"You ever heard the story of Daedalus and Icarus, succulette?" Tamsin asked.

Bo nodded. "Sure. Kid flew too close to the sun or something?"

Hearing this synopsis, Trick sighed. "Daedalus and Icarus were a pair of Lokis living in ancient Greece. Crete, to be exact," he relayed. "Daedalus was a renowned inventor, and Icarus was his young son. The Minoan king, King Minos, contracted him to build a dungeon maze to imprison his enemies in with a monster -an UnderFae Minotaur. The maze was built so well that it was considered inescapable, and anyone who entered never came out again. It became known simply as the Labyrinth." Around the table, heads bobbed in fearful concurrence. "Daedalus however, as its creator, did know how to escape it. And King Minos didn't want him ever telling anyone how, so he locked Daedalus and Icarus away in a tower for what he intended to be forever."

"Their escape is where the classic tale about Daedalus building wings and Icarus drowning in the ocean after he flew too close to the sun comes from," Lauren added.

From her seat at the bar, Hnoss turned back to them and giggled. "Flew too close to the sun? No way. That was Herja."

Dyson blinked. "Herja? Another Valkyrie?" he questioned.

"Herja is a Valkyrie that went to see Daedalus about some gadget or another she wanted made. She had to fly into his window to enter the tower though, and the man had the nerve to knock her out and pluck some of her feathers to give his false wings the power of true flight," Tamsin explained shortly, inspecting her nails carefully, as if she were bored with the story. "Herja caught up with them in the air and decided to take a few of them back."

From her perch on the barstool, Hnoss gave a wistful sigh at the name. "Oh, Herja. I haven't seen her for over thirty years now," she cooed, swaying in place a little. "She's so wonderful with her hands, and you wouldn't believe what she can do with her to-"

"-Probably not the best place to share your war stories there, Hnossy baby," Tamsin said loudly, cutting her off.

Hnoss just smirked and brought her hand up to her mouth, making a v-shape with her fingers and darting her tongue over the skin between them. Tamsin made a disgusted face and turned away, muttering to herself about slutty little sisters.

Bo, on the other hand, was feeling a little nauseated. "She murdered a child?" she gasped, horrified.

"Nah, Icarus was fine," Tamsin said, waving her hand nonchalantly. "I mean, he got a bit damp and was never able to look a Valkyrie in the eye without twitching ever again, but still totally cool!"

"Yeah!" Hnoss insisted. "Herja dragged him out of the water by his ankle and kept flying him up in the air and dropping him and catching him again. Daedalus was losing his shit." She collapsed into a fit of giggles.

Bo just stared at her, her horror only slightly mitigated.

"Ysabeau, a Valkyrie's wings are somewhat… sacred to her," Trick hurried to explain, ignoring how Tamsin cleared her throat as if she didn't want him to answer. "Very few people are allowed to see them -much less touch them- and for Daedalus to have stolen feathers from a Valkyrie… let's just say that it's a minor miracle the man and his son actually survived the encounter, much less the aftermath."

"Truth!" Hnoss proclaimed loudly, making a toasting motion with her shot glass. "Do not touch a Valkyrie's wings. Ever. Not if you want to live."

Hearing this, Bo's eyes widened and she nodded slowly to show her understanding, casting an unconscious glance over to where Tamsin was seated next to her at the table. Bo vividly recalled the incredible softness of Tamsin's black feathers sliding between her fingers not even an hour before. If Valkyries didn't allow anyone to touch their wings, why had Tamsin allowed Bo to do that very thing with impunity? She eyed Tamsin's graceful form curiously. The Valkyrie refused to make eye contact.

Something to think about later, Bo promised herself.

"Daedalus and Icarus remain the only two living beings who ever knew all the secrets of the Labyrinth," Trick continued, oblivious to Bo and Tamsin's moment -though Dyson was eyeing them curiously, obviously having sensed that something was up. "If Ryan is right about Icarus being the thief who ran off with Gungnir, then that's definitely the place that he would feel safest. No single Loki or Valkyrie would ever be able to find him there."

"Why not?" Bo questioned.

"Legend says that the only way to navigate your way in and out of the Labyrinth is the use of an enchanted ball of string," Lauren answered, reaching out and tapping the ball that Ryan had given to Bo. "I imagine that what Ryan calls a Navigator is a tool of Loki design, that only a Loki could create. As a species though, they aren't notorious for their fighting ability, meaning that even if a Loki with a Navigator could find his way into and out of the Labyrinth, he wouldn't survive the dangers within it."

"The Minotaur," Bo realized.

Dyson snorted. "A whole clan of them lived within the maze in the ancient times," he said. "No doubt they've only bred in there."

"Along with whatever else has found its way in and hasn't died yet," Tamsin added, her lip curling with distaste. "How Icarus has spent three hundred years in that death trap, I will never understand."

"But we could fight our way through, couldn't we?" Bo prompted hopefully, her heart sinking. She needed Gungnir, because she needed Kenzi. She'd crawl through the Labyrinth on her hands and knees if it meant she could have her best friend in her arms just one more time. Kenzi was family. Her heart. Her little human sister. She was worth it. She would always be worth it.

Sensing her distress, Tamsin reached out and laid a comforting hand on Bo's forearm. "Always, Bo. Don't worry. We'll kick some Minotaur ass, get the Gungnir, and bring momz home. Easy," she promised.

"I'll come too!" Hnoss announced somewhat drunkenly from her bar stool. "Fuck if I'm missing 'Semi's last hurrah."

Tamsin glared at her. "I'm not dying!" she hissed.

Hnoss took another shot. She didn't say anything, but it was clear that she didn't believe her.

"I'm coming too," Dyson said with his charming smile that always made Bo feel warm. "Kenzi's one of the best people I've ever had the pleasure to know. There's no way I'm not helping her now."

Bo smiled back at him. "Thanks Dyson," she said sincerely. Dyson was an excellent fighter, and an even better friend. She was grateful to have him with her.

From across the table, Lauren sighed sadly. "I'd offer too, but I'm thinking the Labyrinth isn't really the place for a human," she admitted.

"No it is not," Trick agreed sternly. He softened at Lauren's disappointed expression. "Though a few travel first aid kits wouldn't go amiss, I think."

The blonde doctor nodded and smiled gratefully.

"So we'll go to the Labyrinth? Soon?" Bo pressed eagerly.

"We could go first thing tomorrow morning," Tamsin suggested, glancing at Dyson for confirmation. "It'd give us time to gather supplies, get a good night's sleep, and contact a travel agency for teleportation to Knossos."

Dyson nodded. "That would be ideal," he agreed. "Meet back here at eight, for breakfast?"

Relieved, Bo dipped her head in acknowledgement, heart pounding with the knowledge that Kenzi could be back with them by tomorrow evening. "That's perfect," she sighed, before catching Tamsin's eye. "Time to go home?"

Tamsin smiled at her. "I'll grab Hnoss."

Hnoss didn't want to leave the bar. She resisted being led out the door as wholeheartedly as her drunk, stumbling self could manage, and then spent the whole car ride back to the crack shack insisting that Tamsin and Bo drop her off someplace she could hook up with 'something tasty'. Bo couldn't stop giggling at Tamsin's exasperated expression, especially when Hnoss crawled into her older sister's lap and begged Tamsin to come with her so they could sing for the dancers like they used to.

"I didn't know you sang, Tammy," Bo teased.

Tamsin scowled petulantly around Hnoss' form, but couldn't think of a snappy comeback. Fortunately for her, the drive from the Dal to their home was very short, and Bo was soon helping her lead Hnoss up the stairs to Tamsin's bed. They stripped her of her clothes and tucked her underneath the blankets, and Hnoss was asleep in moments.

"I can't believe she drank two entire bottles of vodka by herself and didn't throw up. Or, you know, die," Bo said as they moved together towards Bo's bedroom, Bo leading Tamsin by the hand. She was glad that Tamsin hadn't yet questioned Bo's insistence on her presence at night. Bo was so not ready for that conversation. ("So succubus, what's with the cuddles?" "Huh? Oh. I might be developing some serious... love-like feelings for you. Slightly.")

Yeah… no. She couldn't imagine that ending well. Not with their history. The people Bo loved were always inevitably hurt by that love, and Tamsin knew it. Bo couldn't bear it if the Valkyrie decided she wasn't worth it, and pulled away entirely.

Beside her, Tamsin shrugged, oblivious to Bo's inner conflict. "She's a Valkyrie," she said simply. "Probably won't even have a hangover in the morning."

"If I wasn't me, I think I'd be jealous," Bo chuckled as she walked over to her closet and began stripping, snatching a nightie to change into. Bo could see Tamsin doing the same in her peripheral vision, as Tamsin had grabbed a pair of shorts and an old t-shirt when they were in the room she and Kenzi shared. It was odd and almost creepily domestic that they could change in such close proximity like this and not be bothered, but Bo felt entirely comfortable. She wasn't sure when that had happened.

"But you are you, and you never have to suffer hangovers if you don't want to," the blonde pointed out with some amusement.

"True," Bo agreed cheerfully, as she pulled her nightie over her head and sighed at the comfortable texture of it. Shyly, she cast a glance over at Tamsin who was just pulling a shirt on. She was facing away from her, but Bo still caught a tantalizing glimpse of Tamsin's bare back -rippling with muscles and marred only by the two identical pink scars running down her shoulder blades from where she'd exposed her wings earlier that day.

Tamsin turned and caught her looking. She raised an eyebrow. "See something you like, succulette?"

"Yes," Bo admitted, leaning up against the wall. "But it'd probably be impolite to molest you when you've been so good to me these past few days."

Tamsin's eyes softened. "You can feed from me if you're hungry, Bo. You're going to need every bit of strength you can get tomorrow," she told her seriously.

Involuntarily, Bo sucked in a breath. "I… I know," she said on the exhale, shaking her head to clear it. "I just… I don't know how to thank you for it. I know how painful feeding a succubus can sometimes be, and if you were anyone else I could just give you a few orgasms and have done with it, but…" she trailed off.

"But?" Tamsin prompted with a frown, taking a seat on the bed and patting the space beside her as an invitation for Bo to sit.

Cautiously, Bo crossed the floor and accepted Tamsin's invitation, settling down next to her on the mattress. She was careful not to touch her though. "But you aren't just anyone," Bo admitted shakily, feeling somewhat miserable about the entire situation. "You aren't just another feed. You have the most spectacular chi I've ever tasted, but I haven't slept with you once and you just keep letting me have it and I don't even know what you want me to give back, even though you're one of the most important people in my life and I probably should know…" Bo wrung her hands anxiously. "You're worth more than a quick fuck, Tamsin, and I don't know how to tell you that while I'm sucking you dry like a juicebox."

Wordlessly, Tamsin wrapped an arm around Bo's waist and tugged her closer. Bo sank into Tamsin's body gratefully, unspeakably relieved that Tamsin wasn't angry. Well... that wasn't true. She'd known Tamsin wouldn't get mad at her for any amount of incoherent emotional babble. Bo wasn't sure what she was expecting that made her so nervous, really, but she absolutely reveled in the now-familiar feeling of safety that Tamsin's proximity induced.

"You don't owe me anything, Bo," Tamsin said softly. "Don't ever think you owe me."

Bo curled herself half onto Tamsin's lap and pushed her face into her shoulder. Like a flood, her debts to Tamsin suddenly began to pour from her mouth. "You helped and believed me about Kenzi and Inari when no one else would. You stuck with me even though my Dawning invitation was all kinds of messed up trippy. You took a bullet for me. You broke back into Taft's compound with me. You risked upsetting my father by not completing your bounty, for me. You drove off a cliff trying to protect me. You got sucked into a wall by a Krampus, for me. You kicked my ass verbally to make me mad enough to feed off of you when I was injured and heartbroken. You've spent these past few days taking care of me emotionally, and now feeding me physically. You didn't even punch me in the face when I touched your wings, and not once have you asked me for anything in return. Tamsin… of course I owe you," Bo insisted. "Far more than I can ever repay."

"Funny, because that's how I feel about everything you've done for me," Tamsin shot back, holding Bo tighter. "So what do you say we both stop feeling guilty about it and call it square, huh? What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine. Isn't that what friends do?"

Bo smiled and nuzzled further into Tamsin's shoulder. "Not all friends," she admitted. "Just the really good ones."

"Well I always was an overachiever," Tamsin said lightly, smiling teasingly. "So how about you feed a little before you go to bed so I don't have to drag your cute little ass out of danger tomorrow, kay?"

Eager to once again taste Tamsin's winter blackberry flavor, Bo leaned back and swung her leg over the Valkyrie's lap so she was straddling her, hands bracing against Tamsin's steady shoulders and their noses only centimeters apart. "If I take from you now, will you be tired tomorrow?" she asked seriously.

Tamsin smirked. "Your little succubus kisses don't do much to me, if you hadn't noticed Bo. I'll be fine."

Admittedly, were Bo to attempt to drain Tamsin dry at this very moment, the succubus knew it would take significant time and effort on her part to do it. Plenty of time for Tamsin to toss her across the room. With Tamsin, Bo didn't have to worry about accidentally killing her, and it was a novel and soothing feeling. "Why is that?" she asked curiously. "It used to be that you tasted better than the others, but only had a little more chi volume than another Fae. Now you're delicious and a buffet all by yourself."

"I should have expired months before we first met," Tamsin confessed. "But… I'm kind of a stubborn bitch, so… what you met when you met me was a Valkyrie running on like, ten percent power, if that." She rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. "Ultra lame. I'm much more badass now. And, you know… demigoddess. So there's that."

Bo grinned at her. There were a million things she wanted to say to Tamsin now. A million things she could ask; like why she came back to them even after she'd grown and regained her memories; like why she'd let Bo touch her feathers when it so happened to be a Valkyrie faux pas; like what the big deal with Falling was and why everyone flipped out about it when they found out it had happened to Tamsin. But… there would be time for those questions later, Bo promised herself. For now, she wanted to enjoy just being close to Tamsin like this. With this in mind, she leaned forwards and captured Tamsin's lips with her own in a passionate kiss that was eagerly returned. Beneath her, Tamsin groaned in surprised approval when Bo nipped at her lower lip playfully, very much intending to enjoy their little makeout session to the fullest extent she thought she could get away with.

"Why- why aren't you feeding?" Tamsin managed to gasp after several minutes of kissing and wandering hands.

Bo lowered her head and pressed a few kisses beneath Tamsin's jawline and down the column of her throat, which Tamsin instantly exposed further by tilting her head back. "Are you complaining?" she asked breathlessly, smirking against the rabbiting pulse against her lips.

Tamsin shook her head, and Bo rewarded her with another lingering kiss on her swollen lips. "Good." This continued for several minutes more, Tamsin having grown a little bolder in the meantime. Bo didn't put a stop to it until a trail of kisses across her collarbone sent her libido through the roof and she felt there was a very real danger of her just tossing Tamsin down onto the bed and ravishing her for hours. "As nice as this is," Bo groaned aloud, gripping the back of Tamsin's neck in order to angle her face back towards hers, "we're going to have to stop soon if we're actually going to rest tonight."

Tamsin's pupils were blown so wide that her eyes reminded Bo of her Valkyrie state. "Are you complaining?" she asked hoarsely, planting her hands firmly on Bo's hips and gazing at her hotly. A mocking smirk tilted her lips, though the effect was somewhat ruined when she licked at them with hunger in her darkened eyes.

Bo honest-to-God whimpered at the tone, lunging forwards and kissing her again in an exercise in tender synchronicity. This time though, she gave in to her hunger and almost immediately began drawing out Tamsin's chi, moaning wantonly at the taste. She could feel Tamsin's arousal, and Bo fed strongly for a good long while, pulsing charms through her hands and into Tamsin's body from where she'd snuck her hands beneath her sleep shirt to rest on the warm skin of her back in an effort to offset the harshness of her feeding. She didn't stop until she started to feel lightheaded, at which point she cut off the flow of chi with a brief kiss and collapsed into Tamsin's body, trembling.

"You good now, succu-slut?" Tamsin asked her somewhat amusedly as she stroked her hair.

"Yeah," Bo answered with a giddy laugh, buzzed and sated all at once. "You good too?"

Tamsin squeezed her. "I'm good," she promised. "Now let's get some sleep before we brave the Labyrinth."

As they wordlessly settled themselves beneath the covers, Bo couldn't help but ponder Tamsin's last statement. She just knew that they'd all be willingly wandering into a shitstorm tomorrow. Even if she hadn't been told the tale of the Labyrinth, the name itself was menacing enough to warrant caution. But to know in reality that it was a literal deathtrap… well, Bo wasn't optimistic about all four of their party escaping the Labyrinth completely unscathed. Alive, maybe (just because they were them and had the most ridiculous luck), but not unscathed.

But Kenzi was worth it, Bo firmly reminded herself. Besides, she'd have Tamsin with her, at full reborn-Valkyrie power. Together, they could do anything.

They had to.


	7. The Labyrinth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's a couple things you've all been waiting for. Brace yourselves!

As Tamsin had predicted the night before, Hnoss was hangover-free that morning despite the sizable dent she'd put in Trick's bar stock. Bo almost laughed aloud at the absolutely disgusted look Lauren was shooting the obnoxiously chipper Valkyrie as she bounced around the Dal with a breakfast burrito in one hand and a beer in the other. ("Beer? It's eight in the morning, Hnoss." "Exactly, Doc! It's too early for vodka.")

Sometimes, she and Tamsin were so related it wasn't even funny.

The group were all gathered at the Dal that morning to prepare for their trip to the Labyrinth. Bo had decked herself out in her customary black leather and had strapped daggers to various suggestive places on her body. She carried the Navigator in a small pouch clipped to her belt, and a few first aid and other survival supplies from Lauren in another. Dyson wore nothing but his customary jeans and button-down. Wolves didn't need weapons, and Bo assumed the clothes were so casual because he'd be half-naked the whole time anyways.

The Valkyrie twins, on the other hand, were on the complete opposite spectrum of prepared than their wolf-shifter friend. Hnoss had donned her armor, and had returned Tamsin's to her as well in an emotional display very early that morning that had resulted in an extended hug and a few tears that Tamsin later denied rather vehemently. They'd changed before they left for the Dal, and Bo couldn't find any other word to describe them than magnificent. Judging by the expressions on the faces of the others when the three of them first entered the otherwise empty bar, Bo rather thought they agreed with her. Hnoss was dressed mostly in molded leather, with the metal pieces strapped over the areas most in need of additional protection. She wore a gleaming silver breastplate carved with a pair of wings that swept beneath her breasts and across her sides. Scaled plate pauldrons protected her shoulders and upper arms, and she wore a chainmail skirt to cover her thighs over studded leather pants. Both her forearms bore plate greaves, and and her shins bore the polished metal as well. Even her black leather gloves had metal studs sewn into the knuckles. Tamsin's body armor was very similar in design to her sister's, except for the styling. While Hnoss' armor was aesthetically molded into elegant curves and impressions of wings around her body, Tamsin's was designed with harsher lines and angles down her torso and over her limbs. It gave her a far more harsh, utilitarian look as compared to her sister, though it was still beautiful in an 'I-might-stab-you' sort of way. Each twin wore a helmet that dipped low between the eyes and across the cheeks. Their headgear was highly stylized much in the way that Hnoss' breastplate was, with a pair of molded metal wings sweeping up the sides of their heads and giving them a wild sort of look. This image was only compounded by the ridiculous amount of weapons each was carrying.

Bo was used to the walking-armoury look from Tamsin, as she'd seen the blonde strap body-belts loaded with various pointy objects onto her torso a great many times since they'd known each other. Honestly, Tamsin was like the Fae boy scout of the group. She was always the one who came prepared -as evidenced by their encounter with the Rakshasa on like, their first week of knowing each other, during which Tamsin had suddenly unzipped her jacket to reveal a collection of knives and darts that made even Bo green and proceeded to slay the enemy. (And who even carried lead weapons anyways?) Tamsin had dressed much the same throughout most of their acquaintance, ready to kick ass at a moment's notice. Nevertheless, the look just seemed… different, when accompanied by full body armor. Fiercer. And Bo was pretty sure Hnoss had an honest-to-God katana strapped to her back. When she was taking mythology class in high school, Bo had once seen a painting depicting a Valkyrie -all flowing locks and fierce pose and glinting armour. She thought that Hnoss and Tamsin embodied this image of the battle goddesses of old rather well, and the succubus simply couldn't tear her eyes away from them.

They were heartstopping. In the deadliest of ways.

Though perhaps not so much so when one was prancing around the Dal, and the other was trying to hit her with balled-up paper napkins with each pass.

"Ysabeau," Trick said from beside her, forcibly breaking Bo's Valkyrie-induced trance.

Bo smiled at her grandfather, who was looking up at her with worried eyes. "What's up, Trick?" she asked. They had about ten minutes before they had to head over to the travel agent, and Bo realized that this time was going to be filled with goodbyes from her last remaining blood family that wasn't completely insane or evil.

"This is for you," he told her, holding out his hand. A thin silver chain dangled from his fingers, weighed down by a pendant that appeared to be a simple, large white pearl.

Carefully, Bo took the necklace into her own hands and examined it. "It's pretty," she announced with a smile, unclasping it and looping it around her neck.

Trick laughed heartily at her. "Repeat after me," he instructed. "Ortus."

"Ortus," Bo dutifully replied. Much to her shock, the pearl pendent suddenly burst into radiant light, shining like a miniature sun from where it hung over her chest. "Oh wow," she gasped, brushing against it with one finger. The pearl was still smooth and cool to the touch.

"And now noctus," Trick prompted.

Fascinated, Bo held the glowing pearl up to her face. "Noctus." Like a lightswitch, the light went out. Bo squealed in delight. "Trick, this kicks so much ass!" she exclaimed.

"A mermaid tear, enchanted to bring light to the darkest of places. I thought you'd like it better than a flashlight," Trick told her with an adoring smile.

Touched at the consideration, Bo leaned down and gave him a tight hug, which he reciprocated. "Thanks, grandpa," she sighed. She didn't know what she wanted to say. That she loved him? That she was so grateful he let her be her own woman even though watching her do something so dangerous was obviously killing him? That their relationship had had its rocky places with all the lying and the secrets, but that she forgave him for that?

Before she could decide, a quiet voice interrupted the moment, causing her to straighten up and pull away.

"Bo?" Lauren asked from behind her.

Trick gave her one last smile and walked off towards where Tamsin and Hnoss were leaning forwards over the table where they'd laid out their half-eaten breakfast and were giving Dyson identical evil grins -the sort of face Tamsin always pulled when she was winning an argument. Reassured that there'd at least be a mediator for whatever conversation was happening over there, Bo turned her full attention to the human doctor. "What's up, Lauren?"

Lauren was giving her that look -that expression trapped somewhere between heartbreak and appreciation of something beautiful that always made Bo feel like a complete and total monster for being the cause of it. She'd been the recipient of that look more and more often the longer they'd dated, and it never hurt any less. Bo hadn't seen it in a while though, and she couldn't imagine what she'd done this time to earn it.

"You took it off," Lauren stated. She sounded… unsurprised. And resigned.

Bo frowned. "I… what?" she questioned, mind scrambling. These past few days had been amped to a constant emotional high, and little things were escaping her at the moment.

Lauren smiled at her. "The necklace. You took it off. I noticed yesterday."

Oh. That. Bo had taken it off. That day Hnoss had arrived, when she'd had time to herself upstairs, Bo had taken the time to look in the mirror and seen Lauren's gift nestling against her throat, and she'd felt warm that she'd been given such a beautiful thing from someone she valued so very much. But she'd also felt fake. Like she was trying desperately to hold onto something that she'd lost a long time ago... and she didn't want to be that person. Bo didn't want to be someone so stuck in the past that she couldn't embrace her own future. Didn't want to lie to herself when so many people around her lied to her every day. She loved Lauren, but every time they were together, they'd only ended up being destructive to each other in one way or another. Be it Bo's inability to relate to Lauren's passions, or Lauren's own insecurities, or Bo's hectic lifestyle preventing her from being there for Lauren, or even those condescending moments when Lauren would look at Bo like she was stupid and… sometimes, Bo felt like their love was wrapped in this agonizing, passive-aggressive loop that she just couldn't escape from. Mostly because she didn't want to. She'd looked at herself wearing that necklace and saw someone who was afraid to take it off because she was afraid of being unloved. And that… Bo didn't admire that person.

So she'd taken the necklace off and placed it lovingly in her jewelry box, thrown some clothes on, and walked from the room. And she hadn't looked back, or even thought about it since, the revelation lost in the maelstrom of shit her life had become the moment she returned to the Death Train.

Now though, Bo felt guilty. She always felt guilty when it came to Lauren. "Yeah… I did," she said, unconsciously touching the hollow of her throat where the pendant had once briefly rested.

Lauren just nodded, understanding the unspoken message that they weren't going to be a them again anytime soon -if ever. "Just… What changed, Bo?"

Bo bit her lip. There were a lot of answers to that question. (Which was a loaded question if she'd ever heard one.) Some of the answers were easy. Intuitive. Kenzi was dead; and with her, Bo's heart. But… that certainly wasn't the only answer, and Bo loved Lauren. She was and always would be one of her favorite people, and Bo thought that Lauren deserved more than an excuse that might not even hold water after today, if all went according to plan. "Lauren…" Bo began, conscious of the time restraints. This definitely wasn't the opportune time to have this conversation, but she understood why Lauren had spoken up now. With all this talk of the Labyrinth and dying, Lauren wasn't sure there'd be a later. "I just… I've spent my entire adult life up until a few years ago thinking I'd never be able to love anyone, and then there was you and Dyson and… I love you. I do. But you and Dyson were just always there and I…" Bo closed her eyes for a moment, full of remembered pain. "That thing with Rainer… I don't know what it was. What was real. What wasn't. But I did care about him, and for the first time since I had control of my own life, I felt what that life could be like without having to choose between you; and Lauren…" Bo stepped forwards and took the doctor's cool hands in her own, while Lauren watched her with large eyes swimming with unfallen tears. "I love you. And it's because I love you that I'm just so tired of hurting you, and you hurting me, and us hurting each other. I don't know what will happen in the future, but that doesn't mean that I -that we- should cling to the past," Bo implored her. "We just keep falling apart, and maybe that means that we just aren't… meant to be. I don't want to be the one keeping you from a happier life than I could ever give you Lauren, because you are so easy to love, and maybe… maybe we should just stop being so afraid of being alone, and start living."

Because Bo couldn't do this anymore. Their entire relationship was fractured by so many lies and so many failed expectations that even if they could forgive each other… how could either of them ever forget? Time wouldn't fix them. Time was against them. Bo didn't think she was strong enough to watch someone she was with grow old and die without her.

Standing stock-still before her, Lauren inhaled a shaky breath and exhaled again, clearly attempting to stave off tears. Bo used her thumbs to rub circles on Lauren's hands in an effort to comfort her, but she knew that anything further wasn't for her to do anymore. The thought was bittersweet.

"You've moved on, Bo," Lauren finally spoke, removing her hands and swiping at her eyes as she took a small step back. "And I… I understand." She smiled that despairing smile that sometimes accompanied the look. "Thanks for telling me, I guess."

Bo frowned and folded her arms across her stomach, suddenly aching. Why did love always hurt so much? She'd never had love that didn't trap her, or hurt her, and Bo wondered somewhat bitterly if that state was due to her succubus nature or just her. "Lauren… I just… I want you to be happy, and I can see that I'll never be able to do that for you. Never. Can't you see it too?" she pleaded miserably. And wasn't that the kicker? She -a succubus- not enough for a romantic relationship. It was so ridiculous that if she weren't so pained over that fact, she might even find it funny. But Bo would never be able to give Lauren what she needed, and she knew it. It hurt, but she knew it, and Bo figured it was about time she stopped lying to herself about it. She was just so done with all the lies.

For a moment, Lauren simply gazed at her, but eventually lowered her eyes to the floor. "I can," she confessed. "I- I do. It's just…"

"Hard?" Bo offered with a bitter smile. She certainly knew how that felt.

Lauren matched her expression. "I was going to say terrifying, but hard… it's that too. And for the record, I hope… I hope you can find someone who you'll always make happy, Bo, just by being you. And I'm sorry I wasn't her."

Bo hugged her. "Yeah… me too. We'll still be friends when I get back?"

"Always," Lauren promised her before disengaging once again and stepping back some. "Good luck today."

"Thanks." With that, Bo turned away from Lauren and crossed the bar to where her companions for the trip ahead were waiting for her by the door, having apparently finished with their verbal spat and deciding to get to the action part of the day. All three were staring at her; Dyson with his puppy-face on, Hnoss with a scowl, and Tamsin with careful neutrality.

"What?" she asked, raising a challenging eyebrow at them and opening the door.

One by one, they all filed through and began walking towards Dyson's car, which they'd be taking to the travel agency. "Dude, did you just get back together with your ex-girlfriend?" Hnoss asked bluntly once the door to the Dal Riata swung shut behind them.

Bo didn't want to know how Hnoss already knew her dating history. She rolled her eyes heavily at the question. "Not that it's any of your business; but no, I didn't," she snapped, before frowning to herself as they walked. Her tone drifted as she grew a little more thoughtful. "I just… told her to move on. To be happy. There we some things to be said -apologies- before I left today, and… well, that's what that was." She shrugged, tossing Hnoss another annoyed glance. "Satisfied?"

Hnoss grinned at her. From beneath the shade of her winged helmet, the expression seemed a tad too feral to be entirely kind. "Extremely, succubus."

The slightly intimidating effect she was having on Bo was completely ruined when Tamsin reached out and slapped Hnoss on the back of the head with a clang of leather on metal. "Quit gossiping and get in the car, Hnoss," she snapped out. "And if you don't leave Bo alone I'll have to do unpleasant shit to you, capiche?"

Hnoss rolled her eyes, but obeyed, rounding the car to slip into the passenger seat while Dyson sat behind the wheel. Tamsin joined Bo in the backseat, though she kept her view trained out the window once they started driving. Bo was both warmed by her defence, but chilled by the lack of further reaction. Confused, Bo placed a hand on Tamsin's leather-clad forearm and shot her a questioning look. Tamsin just smiled at her briefly before turning back to watch the scenery roll past the window.

Bo left her to her thoughts for the rest of the short car ride. Now wasn't the time for another long talk, she knew. Indeed, from the moment they exited the car at the travel agency to the moment just two minutes later when the world whipped past them and they alighted on the island of Crete, the only delay was one of Bo's own making, and it was a brief one. ("Welcome! Please, take a number." "Fucking again? Seriously?!")

Bo was still feeling twitchy about it even as they landed. Dyson was gazing at her with amusement in his eyes, and Hnoss with marked wariness at the sudden burst of uncharacteristic temper. Tamsin just looked vaguely confused.

All of this was quickly forgotten, however, as they each took a good look at where they were. The group had been teleported to a bare hillside before the entrance to the Labyrinth. On one side, the ocean stretched out before them, its slate-grey surface laced with white that rippled with each gust of the wind. The air smelled of salt and grass. Facing the hillside however, they were greeted by the entrance to the Labyrinth. It wasn't anything too spectacular, in Bo's opinion. Just an archway formed from blocks of stone that reminded her of something from Stonehenge, framing a gaping hole that led directly into the side of the hill. What was rather alarming though, were the other creepy elements contributing to the general ambiance. All the plant life around the entrance was grey and crumbling in a radius of several feet, and the earth beneath was stained a rusty brown. Like blood. A foul stench was rolling from the tunnel as if it were breathing, carrying the scent of stale air and rotting things towards them as if the Labyrinth itself was alive and grasping at them. Someone had driven a stake in the ground just in front of the archway, with what appeared to be a human skull mounted atop it. The empty eyes glared balefully at them in a clear a warning as any to stay away from a place that so obviously reeked of death.

Beside her, Tamsin propped a hand on her hip and hummed in that half-amused, half-angry way she did when she felt incredulous over a challenge, squinting at the deathly archway. "Well," she husked, lips pursed in her 'this-is-so-not-funny' smile. "That isn't ominous at all."

Hnoss rolled her shoulders and flexed her fingers, as if preparing for a fight. (Which in all fairness, she probably was.) "I hope you appreciate the shit I do for you, 'Semi," she grumbled. "If I lose a limb for this, you are going to seriously regret it."

"And miss my chance to be the permanent hot twin?"

Dyson rolled his eyes and took an experimental step towards the entrance of the Labyrinth before looking back at his three companions. "Coming?" he asked.

Sobering, Tamsin and Hnoss each drew a dagger and nodded. Bo imitated them, but drew out the Navigator instead of a weapon as she stepped forwards to stand next to Dyson and eyed the path before her with distaste. "So… any idea how to use this?" she asked the group at large.

"You didn't think to ask that before we left?" Hnoss lamented, dropping her hands down so dramatically that Bo was momentarily afraid that she'd stab herself in the thigh.

Sheathing her own dagger, Tamsin stepped forwards. "Relax, girl scouts. I got this," she said, holding out her hand for the ball of silver string. Not willing to argue, Bo handed it to her and watched carefully as the armored Valkyrie worked the free end of the string loose from the rest of the ball and knelt to tie it around the base of the stake with the skull on it. Once Tamsin seemed satisfied with the strength of the knot, she stood once more and stepped forwards until she stood just at the lip of the archway, a silver line trailing from her hand to the stake just outside the tunnel entrance. "Fire in the hole!" she called out cheerfully before tossing the Navigator inside the Labyrinth.

For a moment, Bo was entirely confused. But her doubt soon transformed into wonder as the Navigator didn't roll to a stop as the laws of physics would suggest. Instead, it kept rolling for far longer than it should have and proceeded to execute a perfect ninety degree turn about twenty feet along, immediately disappearing into a side passage that branched off the main tunnel.

Visibly pleased with herself, Tamsin dusted off her gloved hands and planted them on her shapely hips. Dyson clapped a hand on her shoulder. "And now we follow it," he proclaimed with a grin. The silver string running down the tunnel gave off a subtle glow that Bo could see even from her place in the sunlight, and she knew that following the path it outlined wouldn't be a problem -not for them, and not for whatever else was living in the Labyrinth.

This was going to be so much fun. Not.

"Right," Bo sighed, drawing one of her own daggers. "Let's get this over quickly then."

"Not an encouraging sentiment, coming from a succubus," Hnoss quipped.

"But I'm sure it's one you've heard a lot, right?" Bo shot back venomously, though her smile was sickly sweet.

"Sweet Christ, I think I'd rather be hanging out with the minotaurs," Tamsin bemoaned, her eyes rolling skywards as she grabbed Hnoss by one of her pauldrons and yanked her forwards into the Labyrinth. Both Bo and Dyson followed the twins closely, Dyson chuckling as he did so and even Bo smiling slightly. Their levity was short-lived however. The moment they entered the Labyrinth, it seemed as though night fell over their heads and their hearts. The air became instantaneously thick and suffocating -dank and rancid- and the only sounds they could hear were the shifting of the Valkyries' armor, water trickling down the walls, and their own quick breathing. Though even that seemed muted. Soon enough, they reached the first bend in the tunnel. Entering, both blondes drew their swords -Hnoss her katana and Tamsin a more European inspired hand and a half sword- and held them at the ready, while Dyson held his hands out to his sides, ready to shift at a moment's notice. Seeing this, Bo drew her dagger, uneasy about the fading light from the tunnel entrance. The silver thread that outlined their path gave off a faint glow, but it wasn't very bright, and the tunnel was so very dark.

Beside her, Dyson fumbled in his pocket for a flashlight, but Bo reached out a hand to stop him. "Ortus," she whispered, staring into the oppressive darkness of the tunnel before them. On her chest, the pearl necklace that Trick had given her burst into light, gleaming over her heart like her own personal star.

Surprised, the others glanced at her. "Neat trick, succu-babe," Tamsin told her with a half-smile. The expression seemed a little strange viewed from beneath her winged helmet with her face cast in the odd lighting angle from the pendant.

Bo smiled at her but didn't speak as the group set off down the tunnel. The two Valkyries were in the lead, with Bo walking shortly after them and Dyson taking the rear. Darkness surrounded them totally now, cut only by the light of the necklace and the silver thread stretching off before them. It was enough to see the slow change to their surroundings. While previously the passage they were walking had been cut from simple dirt, it now appeared to be crafted from metal, almost like what Bo imagined the inside of a submarine would look like. It groaned and creaked all around them like a tired ghost, the flat uniformity of the walls occasionally punctuated by off-branching hallways or sections of wall whirring and grinding with the exposed shapes of rusty, ancient gears. Already, Bo could see why the Labyrinth could be considered unnavigable. No matter which direction their path turned, everything was just so… the same. Dark. Creepy. Damp. With some of the noises echoing around them and the scrape marks on the dirt floor, Bo wouldn't have been surprised of the walls and passages were shifting about on their own too. In light of this suspicion, the steady silver guidance of the Navigator was unexpectedly comforting.

It wasn't until they encountered the first body that Bo started feeling truly afraid though.

"Fae. Male. Fairy, I think," Dyson diagnosed after giving the corpse a once-over and a short sniff. "Dead for a week, maybe?" The fairy was little more than a pile of bones and armor, at this point. Some flesh still clung to the remains, but the majority appeared to have been stripped from the bones very crudely. What was left of the body had been tossed carelessly against a wall, except for the head, which had been propped up against a femur and half a ribcage. The skull had been cracked open at the back and the brain removed, but the fairy's half-rotted eyes still looked off into the distance with frozen horror. The entire area was absolutely soaked in the stains of old blood. Bo was choking on the stench of it.

"Minotaurs," Hnoss decided instantly, her lip curled in disgust. "Nothing else would be strong enough to rip a full grown man to pieces like that, then choose butcher him quite literally. Smells like death and cow shit."

Dyson nodded his agreement. "From the tracks, I'd say more than three, but less than six." He gestured to some scuffs in the browned dirt. Bo could see partial hoof prints there. Big ones.

"Please tell me you Valku-bitches can doubt these guys into oblivion," Bo begged, clutching at her dagger. She so wasn't ready to end up on the menu like dead fairy-douche here had.

Unfortunately, Tamsin shook her head in response. "No can do, succubus," she said, frowning. "Minotaurs are UnderFae. Doubt doesn't work so well on them. They're not really smart enough to have doubt about many things in the first place."

"That and they've got a kind of evil-destruction-y mindset," Hnoss added not-so-helpfully. "Doubt's kind of hard to feel if you don't give a shit about doing anything other than what you are. Ironically, our powers work the best on the heroes. Bitches are always agonizing over what's the right thing to do and preserving their spiritual purity or some bullshit like that."

Bo fought the urge to slam her head into a wall. Repeatedly. "Great," she sighed. "Just perfect. Dagger it is, then."

There were only more bodies after that, no matter how long or far they walked in any direction. Some new, some old, and some so old that they were little more than shadows left in the dust -but always more bodies. Men, women, human, Fae, and even a minotaur. The skeleton had to be at least seven feet tall, but Dyson said he was probably killed for being small and weak and his remains left amongst those of the other prey. The twins were shivering with the force of death all around them. ("Are you guys okay?" "Yeah. But this place hasn't seen anything but suffering for a long, long time, Bo.") It was horrific, and Bo couldn't imagine what sort of death echoes Tamsin and Hnoss were picking up on. None of these people had died kindly, she knew.

And it wasn't as if the ambiance of the place helped any of their moods. They walked for what seemed like (and probably was) hours, and Bo -having stood in front of a doorway to Hell that was swarming with zombies not three days ago- could honestly claim that the Labyrinth was the single most dreary setting she'd ever encountered. There was nothing but endless, featureless metal corridors branching off to every side and up and down several levels, the walls creaking with mechanical gears and dripping with a weird sort of milky moisture; and the dead lying soundlessly around them. All of this was visible only by the light of the silver string and the glow of Bo's pendant.

Each member of the party had been understandably on constant alert for attack from the moment they'd entered the Labyrinth. As more and more time passed without any sign of an enemy, however, they became slightly more relaxed. Not that this allowed for much relaxation at all, under the circumstances. Still, it was enough that when the first minotaur appeared, all four of them were taken by surprise.

"Fuck," Hnoss swore as a hulking shadow detached from the top of a nearby staircase and leaped at her, swinging a massive claymore. The Valkyrie just barely managed to block the blow, but it was strong enough that she was knocked off her feet and collided with Bo's chest, crushing the succubus into the nearby tunnel wall. Groaning, Bo immediately shoved her to the side, gasping for breath. All that armor was heavy, and Bo was very sure she'd bruise, if she hadn't already cracked a rib.

"Dyson, get down!" Tamsin was yelling. The moment the minotaur had struck, so had the wolf. He'd forced his body into a partial shift and swiped his formidable claws at the UnderFae's bulky arm. He hadn't done much damage, but the minotaur dropped his claymore with a grunt of pain.

And boy, was this thing ugly. Bo knew what a Minotaur was. Half-man, half-bull, all mean. In theory, it didn't sound too awful; but in practice, it was grotesque. The Minotaur was vaguely humanoid. He was also eight feet tall, minimum, with a disproportionately large head and neck to support the massive horns curling over his cranium. He wore only a grimy loincloth to cover his twisted form, and his body rippled with muscle and oily sweat as he tottered on feet that weren't so much feet as they were blackened cloven hooves. The creature smelled of filth and rot -like corpses left out in the sun on an ill-maintained dairy farm- and had burning red eyes full of a savagery that made Bo even more sick to her stomach than she already was. This was a creature that lived in the dark and ate only the flesh of the fools who ventured there.

Tamsin had leaped to her partner's aid the moment Hnoss' body had flown clear of her path. With the Minotaur disarmed, she'd shouted at Dyson to get out of the way and swung her sword at the monster with a surprising lack of grace -like she was aiming for more of a Louisville slugger instead of a knightly slaying. Clearly though, the Valkyrie knew what she was doing, because her blade sank deeply into the Minotaur's thick neck. So deeply that Bo thought she could see bone for that brief instant before the wound flooded with blood. Something between a bellow and a gurgle escaped the creature, and he lashed out viciously with his fists, catching Tamsin on the side of her helmet with a loud clang before he succumbed and dropped dead on the floor.

"Ow," Hnoss grumbled, straightening up from where she'd been leaning up against the wall next to Bo and rolling her shoulders.

Bo glared at her. "Don't- don't you complain," she wheezed, rubbing a soothing hand over her screaming ribcage. "What have you been eating?"

"Is everybody okay?" Tamsin asked, cutting off any further griping. A small cut on her forehead trickled blood, but it didn't look serious.

"Yeah, just winded," Bo replied.

Hnoss readjusted her armor. "Same."

Dyson shifted back to full human form. "Not a scratch, partner," he declared with a roguish grin. "How's your head?"

"Not as soft as yours," she said with a smirk. "Now let's get going. I don't want to find out if Fugly here had any friends who just heard that."

A clatter sounded down the staircase where the Minotaur had first appeared. "Yeah, pretty sure they did," Bo noted, readjusting her grip on her dagger.

Sure enough, the group was then accosted by more UnderFae leaping from above. There were three of them this time, all of them equally as bulky and revolting as the first. Tamsin and Dyson were the closest and fell into fighting immediately, sword and claws clashing with crude clubs and axes. Hnoss and Bo exchanged a glance before ganging up together on the third Minotaur. The entire experience of this combat was awkward, Bo decided. The passage was barely tall enough to hold the Minotaurs in the first place, and wasn't nearly large enough for any sort of dodging effort to be very effective for either party. The Minotaurs were large enough that long, sweeping blows were extremely effective for them and devastating for a normal-sized Fae who wanted to keep all their body parts; but they were also slow, and not capable of much defensive maneuvering. All of them -friends and enemies alike- were backed up into each others' space, making the fight more of a mass of flailing limbs and weapons than anything else. The enraged roars of the Minotaurs clashed with the shriller sounds of the women's battle cries and Dyson's raspy growls, echoing down the endless maze of metal corridors and throwing them further into chaos.

Tamsin was the first to make a kill, managing to ram her hand and a half sword straight through her opponent's chest and yanking it out again in a spray of red gore. She didn't pause at all after her victory, and instead threw herself into the fight with Dyson, who had managed to hamstring his enemy, but hadn't killed him yet.

Bo and Hnoss, on the other hand, weren't faring as well. Their minotaur appeared to be marginally more skilled than his compatriots, and was wielding a massive battle axe with terrifying efficiency and improbable speed. Though it wasn't deep, Bo had already received a slice to the side, and Hnoss a powerful knock to the chest. Her long dagger was gone too, buried deep into the monster's thigh and causing a limp, but little other damage. She'd already drawn a secondary weapon, but it was one that Bo usually preferred throwing, and she couldn't do that here. Not without running the risk of hitting Hnoss, that is. And annoying as the Valkyrie sometimes was, Bo would feel bad if she accidentally killed her -options for rebirth or no.

Fortunately, Tamsin and Dyson took out the second minotaur and joined the fight with the last, and Hnoss finally was able to stab the monster through the chest. The sudden quiet was broken only by their panting for a few long moments as they listened carefully for further ambush. For now though, they were alone.

"Everybody good?" Dyson asked. He received a trio of muttered affirmations.

Grimacing with disgust, Bo retrieved her dagger from the fallen minotaur's leg, wiping it free of blood on her pant leg, which was past the point of salvation anyways. (The Labyrinth wasn't exactly clean, and their little skirmish certainly hadn't been kind to her clothes.) "I hate this place," she growled, prodding at her wounded side with dirty fingers before deciding that it was a minor enough injury that healing could wait.

None of the others bothered voicing their agreement. "We need to go," Dyson told them instead as he took a few sniffs of the still air. "I smell more where these four came from, and they're getting closer."

Tamsin nodded in agreement, palming her sword nervously. The blonde's body was splattered with blood. None of it was hers. "We'd better make it snappy. The Navigator thread will lead every single one of them straight to us, sooner or later," she added. "The faster we make it to the center of the maze, the less time they have to kill and eat us."

"Run?" Hnoss suggested, just as the faintest clatter of heavy hooves striking earth echoed towards them from a few of the side passages.

Bo shot a nervous glance at her friends, all of whom appeared just as wary as she was of the approaching threats. "Run!" they agreed in unison, and took off up the hall, banking a hard right down the next intersecting tunnel as they followed where the silver line led them.


	8. The Labyrinth (Part Two)

While running for her life through the twisting passages of the Labyrinth, Bo took a short moment to reflect on the exercise in utter and complete absurdity that was her life. (It was either that or reflect on how she really could use more cardio to prepare herself for exertions like this, and that wasn't really something she wanted to think about at the moment.) Here she was, side by side with a pair of armored Valkyries and a half-naked werewolf, fleeing from a savage pack of horrible half-man half-bull creatures that wanted to eat her. And not in the fun way. Normal people -hell, normal Fae- would call this a nightmare.

Bo called this a Tuesday.

Growing up as a normal girl in a normal town, Bo would have never imagined that someone's life could be like this. Certainly never her own. And yet here she was in the Labyrinth -as a life-sucking creature of sex and death- on a quest for a magic spear to retrieve the soul of her best friend from the realm of the dead, contemplating on making her New Year's resolution spending more time at the gym. It was enough to make her want to slap herself, but also want a hug.

"This. Is the last time. I do anything nice. For you," Hnoss panted from beside her, her complaint punctuated by ragged gasps for air as she aimed a weak slap at her sister's shoulder. Bo didn't envy Hnoss. She'd felt firsthand how heavy that armor was when the Valkyrie had been tossed into her, and it couldn't feel good to be running in it right now.

"Dude, Tammy said the same thing to me when I got her shot and she totally lied," Bo informed her, only slightly less breathless.

Snorting, Hnoss just shook her head, then growled in frustration when Tamsin shouted over her shoulder, "When have you ever believed anything I've said?" in a mocking tone, making Bo grin at the familiar commentary.

"Yeah, yeah. We all know you're a liar and-"

Suddenly, Hnoss stopped mid-quip and skidded to a stop. Bo smacked right into her back, groaning in protest. (Because really? Again?)

But ahead of her, both Dyson and Tamsin had stopped too, and when Bo peeked around Hnoss' armored shoulder, she could clearly see why. Throughout their entire trek of the maze, the Labyrinth's defining feature had been its dreary uniformity. It was impossible to escape a maze that kept changing paths and didn't have any landmarks, after all. But this… this was different.

They'd arrived at a room. A hall, really. A vast, open space with high, arched ceilings and distant walls and a creepy black fog rolling over the floor in sluggish billows, concealing anything that could be in front of or around them. The silver string of the Navigator plunged straight to the center of it, its weak glow only cutting through the fog for a foot or two before it was no longer visible. It was cold, too. Colder than it had been inside the maze, anyways. Bo could see her quick puffs of breath crystallizing in the air in front of her.

All four of them eyed the massive hall obscured in the black fog warily. Dyson was sniffing heavily. "I smell… wolf?" he tried, frowning and shaking his head, as if to clear it. "But not quite. Blood too. And no minotaurs."

"Well that, at least, I like," Bo replied, glancing nervously back the way they came. The sounds of their pursuers were growing ever louder. "Do we have a choice anyways?"

"No," Tamsin answered shortly, taking a step forwards. "Let's go. Just… keep ready, guys. If the minotaurs don't come here, there's probably a reason."

Bo grimaced. She very much didn't want to find out why the minotaurs would prefer to stay away from this room and it's creepy-ass fog, but she also didn't want to stand here and wait for said minotaurs to catch her. She followed Tamsin, and the others did too.

The fog, at least, seemed harmless. It was cold, and curled against Bo's body like it was made of possessive hands, but it didn't seem to hurt them in any way. It tasted like overly ripe banana when she breathed it in. Not quite rotted yet but certainly not something she'd want to eat, smelling sickly sweet and thick.

They stuck closely together even so, careful to stay right on top of their guiding line. It would be only too easy to lose sight of it in the opacity of the fog. Nothing happened for several minutes as they walked along, and for a moment, Bo foolishly hoped that this was it. That this was the last weak ball the Labyrinth had to pitch at them.

She should have known better, of course.

"Bo? Tamsin? Wait!" a voice suddenly called out from their right, the speaker completely hidden by the billows of dark mist. Bo's heart practically stopped. She knew that voice. "Are- are you there? Please, guys. I'm scared."

The group had all halted in their tracks. Bo and Tamsin were staring at each other in mutual horror. "Is that…?" Tamsin breathed, her stunning green eyes wide.

"Kenzi," Bo finished, her entire body quivering with a mixture of joy and fear. "That's Kenzi!"

"Bo!" Kenzi's voice continued. "Bo, help me, please! I- I don't know where I am! You promised to protect me, Bo. You promised! Where are you? Help me!"

A wave of guilt and fear crashed through Bo's chest, suffocating her. Kenzi… Bo had promised to protect her. Her little human sister. And she'd failed. Bo didn't know how Kenzi had found her way into the Labyrinth, but that didn't matter now. All that mattered was that Kenzi needed her, and that Bo wasn't about to let her slip through her fingers. Not again.

Without thinking, Bo launched herself in the direction of Kenzi's voice, only to find herself trapped in Dyson's strong arms. "Bo, don't!" he exclaimed, grunting with the effort of holding her still as Bo struggled and kicked. "It's not real! Kenzi's in Valhalla, remember? This is just the Labyrinth playing tricks on you. If you lose sight of the string, you'll be trapped here forever."

Bo stilled. She knew that. But… "Kenzi…" she sobbed out, ceasing her struggles even as the not-Kenzi cried out for her still. Tamsin grabbed her hand, looking pale and nauseous, and Bo clutched at it gratefully.

"Dyson." This voice was new. It came from the left, a little behind them. It wasn't Kenzi, but the voice was undoubtedly familiar, and Bo could feel Dyson's entire body go rigid behind her at the sound of it. It was Hale. "Dyson man, you gotta stop," Hale pleaded. "You gotta help us! Don't leave me here. Don't let me down again. Please."

"Oh gods," Bo cried. Hale. She couldn't save him. Wasn't willing to. Not at the price of Kenzi. Weakly, Dyson called out Hale's name in a broken voice -both afraid that it was real and afraid that it wasn't.

And suddenly, the air was full of voices. Voices that wielded their words like knives, and Bo could feel herself bleeding. One by one, she and the others came undone, staggering and crying and reliving old agonies that should have had no place in this hell, but were appearing anyways.

"Hnoss love, why did you leave? Come home to me. I already lost one child- I can't lose you too! Come back to me, please! I just want you safe." A woman's voice. Full and rich and singing with sadness.

Hnoss recoiled and dropped her sword from her hand with a clatter. "Mother! Mother, I'm sorry I- I just wanted to-"

"I died for you, Dyson! I died because I loved you and you couldn't even love me back! So please, if you ever felt anything for me, help me!" Ciara. Ciara was here too. Sweet Ciara, who had sacrificed herself in the fight against the Garuda.

Dyson dropped his hold on Bo completely and spun around, looking for the fairy. "I never meant to hurt you, Ciara," he pled aloud, tears in his eyes. "My love is gone, but as much as I had left- I gave it to you. Please, believe me!"

The laughter that answered was cackling and hyena-like, and nothing at all like the warm woman Bo remembered. "You can't fool me, Dyson. There's more than one way to love, and you know it," she accused. "You don't have an excuse for how you treated me, wolf. You know better than that. Come and find me. Help me!"

"You call yourself my sister? You're nothing, Hnoss. Nothing but a selfish bitch. You never helped me. You're as bad as Odin!" Tamsin's voice was screaming from within the fog, even though Tamsin's physical body was still there with them, decidedly silent. "Prove that you love me, and don't leave me here now!"

Hnoss -strong, witty, flirty Hnoss- froze in place, her eyes completely glazed over and leaking tears over trembling lips. Bo doubted that she even realized that Tamsin wasn't the one saying these things. Both she and Dyson were completely disoriented at this point, slowly stumbling further away from the guiding light of their silver string.

But then it was her turn once more, and her companions' distress was abruptly pushed from her mind. "I could have loved you, Bo, but you killed me! You killed the life we could have had together. Don't leave me here, Bo. Don't hurt me again." Kyle. Bo whimpered in agony when she heard Kyle's young voice. Her first boyfriend. Her first feed. Her first kill.

She wasn't the only one under attack though. "Tamsin! Or should I call you Gersemi? How could you? You promised you wouldn't hurt me, but you are. You're poison. A monster. You destroy everything you touch, including your warrior -the one person you're supposed to protect. You're a failure as a Valkyrie, Thomasina, and you disgust me!" It was a little disconcerting to hear her own voice spewing such vitriol, but Bo saw that the not-Bo's words had jerked fat tears from Tamsin's eyes, and the blonde was gasping and clutching at her breastplate like her heart was shattering within her.

For a moment, Bo broke free of the spell of the ocean of spiteful voices and fought to right herself again. She hated hearing herself tear into Tamsin like that, and she was just about to lunge for her Valkyrie and shake her out of it when she heard another voice join the mix, as if sensing her renewed will to resist. And it was Aife. "You hurt me, Bo. I needed you, and you left. But that's what you do, isn't it? Hurt people?" her disembodied voice cooed. "You'll never have love. You'll never be able to love someone without hurting them, just like you hurt me."

Horrified, Bo stumbled mid-motion and was overcome by an agonized sob. Because isn't that what she always feared? And here was her mother, confirming what she'd always suspected...

Bo wasn't sure what would have happened if this had continued. She was lost in her own self-hatred and the urge to rush headlong into the fog to find those who were speaking and fix things. Fortunately for her, she never had the chance, because she quite abruptly was returned to her right mind.

The voices had stopped. They'd just stopped, because just like that, Dyson snapped and lunged with fangs and claws bared and there was an inhuman squeal of pain and then Dyson was just standing there with the bloodied corpse of a… well, Bo wasn't actually sure what it was. Some sort of dog-hyena UnderFae with a lion's mane? And then more of the canine fiends were howling out of the mists and snapping their teeth -which were weird and flat and not visibly separated from each other- and Bo had her dagger in hand and the Valkyries their swords and they swung and chopped and… then Bo slipped, and fell to the ground, still disoriented from the emotional ordeal. A wolf-hyena jumped on top of her, slavering and growling, but before it could tear out her throat, Tamsin was there, blocking the bite with her own armored forearm. The maned wolf UnderFae couldn't break through Tamsin's armor with its ridge of teeth, but it jerked its head to one side quickly and forcefully enough that it twisted the Valkyrie's arm in rather unnatural direction with a loud pop. Crying out in pain, Tamsin drew a dagger and stabbed the beast, tossing it away from both Bo and herself before rejoining the fight. Bo followed clumsily, but managed to keep herself from any other near-death experiences after that. And then… then the UnderFae were dead. All sixteen of them. So were the voices.

Bo was still reeling.

"Crocotta," Dyson whispered. His expression still held the devastation of one called to task by those long dead over past misdeeds. "Wolf-dog UnderFae. They mimic voices to lure their prey away before they kill them."

"Or to break them, so they won't fight back," Tamsin added. Bo's heart ached when she looked at her. The blonde was trembling, and her cheeks were dampened with tears. "I think the fog amplified their power. Their persuasion shouldn't have been that strong, even with such a large pack."

Crocotta. The dog-things were UnderFae. Just UnderFae. None of that… none of that was real. The voices and what they said… they weren't real. Bo found it a lot harder than she should have to believe it. She couldn't stop shaking. Nor, she noted, could the others. They all looked awful. None of them lost time in moving forwards though, wanting to put as much distance between themselves and where the Crocotta had attacked as possible. They did the only thing they could, and followed the silver line.

"That looks like a break," Hnoss commented quietly to Tamsin, though both Bo and Dyson still heard perfectly well.

Tamsin, who had been cradling her bitten arm to her chest, nodded grimly. "Feels like one," she reported. "It's on my left though, so I can still fight. We'll worry about it when we get out of here."

Hnoss just nodded, and Bo rather thought this was probably business as usual for a Valkyrie. It's certainly what their attitudes implied. She felt guilty though. Tamsin had gotten her arm broken shielding her from an enemy she should have been able to fight off herself, but she'd just been so distracted and… "I'm sorry, Tamsin," she said quietly, reaching out and brushing Tamsin's good elbow with tender fingertips. She sped up so she could walk beside her.

"It's okay, Bo," Tamsin told her with uncharacteristic sincerity, before smirking at her. "But when we get out of here, you and I are hitting the boxing ring so I can teach you how to keep your feet on the ground and your ass off it, 'kay succulette?"

"I could heal it for you," Bo offered.

Tamsin shook her head. "If you heal it now, I'll just have to re-break it later to set it," she said. "Besides. You're gonna need your strength. So keep the succubus kisses to yourself unless I'm actively dying, okay?"

Slightly dejected and still very much concerned, Bo nevertheless nodded her agreement to these terms. "Okay."

"Look here!" Dyson called from up front. Curiously, Bo obeyed, and her eyebrows jumped in surprise. The silver line that had been guiding them all this time had ended. The Navigator -a much smaller ball of string now than it had been when they'd started- had rolled to a stop in front of a massive set of wooden double doors. Which was odd: firstly because of the wood in a maze created out of metal, and secondly because for as many hours as they'd wandered the Labyrinth, they hadn't once encountered a door of any kind.

"Are we… here?" Bo asked tentatively. The doors didn't seem threatening, but that didn't mean much.

Carefully, Hnoss laid a gloved hand on the door, which swung open a few inches at her touch. A warm yellow light flooded the air in front of them, along with a waft of air that smelled of candles and earth instead of blood and death and rot. "I think this is it!" she announced excitedly. "If Icarus is living anywhere in this hellhole, it would be here."

Bo couldn't really argue with that. Excited, she stepped up and pushed the doors open, squinting at the sudden brightness of the light and entering the new space, her companions just behind her. "Noctus," she muttered, putting out the glow of her necklace.

She wouldn't need its light here.

The transition from the rest of the maze to the center of the Labyrinth was startling, to say the least. If she didn't know better, Bo would almost suspect that they'd exited the Labyrinth entirely and stepped into a show home. As the doors swung shut behind them, the group of gore-splattered, sweaty, and dirty adventurers suddenly felt extremely out of place as they stood in what appeared to be the entrance foyer to a spacious modern house, complete with floor-to-ceiling windows that showed an enchanting view of the sky and clouds and nothing else, as if the house was floating unsupported in the air.

"Um, what just happened?" Hnoss voiced, expressing a sentiment that was very much shared. Bo had half-expected the center of the Labyrinth to be a horrible dungeon pit with some sort of giant monster they'd have to fight. Not… this. It was just so normal and… clean.

"I… have no idea," Bo answered. "But I guess we go and look for Icarus and the spear?"

No one replied to her, but they all clearly agreed as they wordlessly fanned out across the house, listening closely for signs of life.

There were none. Unlike the rest of the Labyrinth, the center lacked any ambient noise, and the silence was almost deafening. Just beige walls and tasteful furniture and not a speck of dust or knick-knack out of place anywhere. None of the beds appeared to have been slept in, and all the picture frames on the walls were blank. It was weird and -knowing where they were- extremely creepy too. It wasn't until Dyson peeked down the stairs into the basement that they found anything unusual. The basement stairs were blocked off from the rest of the house by a heavy door that, when opened, allowed a surprising amount of various mechanical noises to drift up into the main space which captured the attention of Tamsin, Hnoss, and Bo, who were investigating elsewhere.

"Sound's like a Loki's lair to me," Hnoss commented as soon as they'd all gathered at the top of the stairs.

Bo nodded in agreement. "If I can get close enough to this guy, I can probably get him to just hand Gungnir over," she planned aloud, before glancing teasingly at the wolf and Valkyries. "You guys can be the super-scary Plan B."

Dyson grinned at her, and even Hnoss gave the succubus a short wink. Tamsin, on the other hand, just rolled her eyes. "Bitch, please. Fifty bucks that this asshat knows better than to let a succubus within ten feet of him," she scoffed. "Plan B, she says. We're totally gonna be Plan A."

"We'll see," Bo decided, somewhat diplomatically. She wondered how scary Tamsin really thought she was, with one arm disabled. Then again, both Hnoss and Dyson were plenty terrifying. Surely Icarus wouldn't be able to stand up them.

Together, they descended down the stairs into a large, cluttered space that very strongly reminded Bo of Ryan's workshop. Lokis, it seemed, were all cut from the same mold when it came to tinkering with machinery. Bits and pieces of half-finished works with no discernable purpose were piled everywhere, intermittently split with narrow aisles for moving around the room. But unlike Ryan had been, Icarus was not unaware of their arrival.

In fact, he was standing right in front of them.

Icarus (if this was indeed him) was an unremarkable looking man. Average height and average looks, with short brown hair and flinty eyes, dressed in a plain white t-shirt and jeans. What wasn't average was the sense of wild desperation about him, and the large rune-inscribed spear he was pointing steadily in their direction.

It appeared they'd found the Gungnir. Bo couldn't help but think that after everything, this was too easy. But then again, Icarus wasn't exactly looking friendly right now.

In fact, he looked pissed. "Valkyrja cunts," he sneered, spitting at Hnoss' feet, causing Bo to raise her eyebrows in a mixture of surprise and offense. She had, of course, gotten the idea that the two species of Fae didn't exactly get along, but this was a little extreme.

Hnoss and Tamsin, on the other hand, didn't seem overly surprised by this behavior. "Icarus, I presume," Hnoss said evenly, while Tamsin simply smiled dangerously.

"Show your true faces and I promise you that one of you will taste this spear," the man threatened. He had an interesting accent. Bo wasn't sure if it was Italian, or something closer to Greek.

"Relax, hotshot," Tamsin answered back, sheathing her sword and holding her hands out placatingly, much to Bo's surprise. Outwardly, the Valkyrie appeared to be completely at ease, but the succubus could read the anxiety in her eyes. "We're not here to hurt you. We just need the Gungnir." Hnoss didn't sheathe her weapon, but she did lower it some. Belatedly, Bo recognized that the pair of Valkyries were afraid of Icarus. Well… maybe not the man, but certainly the enchanted spear he wielded, which neither had any chance of defending themselves against should he choose to use it. It was a weapon fit for a god, after all.

In response, Icarus merely sneered at them. "And the moment I hand it over, you'll drag me to Asgard as Odin's prize," he pointed out. "So sorry, but I'm afraid that neither of you will be leaving the Labyrinth alive today. Which of you wants to be the first to die?"

Unfortunately for Icarus, the thought of losing Tamsin -Tamsin, who was on her last life- triggered a very unpleasant reaction in Bo. She'd just lost Kenzi. Tamsin was the one person who'd gotten her through that. Tamsin, who was always there for her when she needed help, or a kick in the ass, or a drinking buddy, or even a hug. Tamsin, who had hidden things from her, but never lied. Tamsin, who believed in her. Tamsin, who'd just gotten her arm broken saving Bo's life not ten minutes ago. This was the woman whom this man was threatening to kill.

And that was unacceptable.

Abruptly, Bo snapped. Icarus never even saw it coming. For the very short span of time since the group had descended into the basement workshop, the Loki had only really considered the two Valkyries to be credible threats to his person. Understandable, considering his childhood encounter with an angry Herja and how long he'd been hunted by others of her kind for robbing Valhalla. In comparison to the pair of fully-armored Nordic warriors, Bo and Dyson appeared to be far less dangerous enemies. So when Bo's body suddenly surged with a visible blast of otherworldly power that lit her skin a ruddy orange and created a sourceless breeze around her suddenly rigid, blue-eyed form, Icarus was completely taken aback by the transformation. So were Dyson, Tamsin, and Hnoss for that matter- not having expected a death threat much like they received on a weekly basis to set her off so quickly. Though those three at least had the presence of mind to back away slightly. Icarus, on the other hand, lost precious time when he paused to gape at her in confusion.

Going all Dark Queen was a very unusual experience for Bo. In some ways, it was like blacking out. She couldn't control what her other persona said or did, even if she retained the memories of the event afterwards. She was never really afraid of these moments though. Going Dark Queen was disconcerting and heady, but it had also saved Bo's ass more than a few times. Dyson's too. And Lauren's. All of them. She didn't allow her inner power to take control very often, but when she did, it was needed.

And Bo felt it was needed now, because she could not allow Tamsin to die.

"Only I choose who lives, and who dies," the Dark Queen thundered out. "Not you." She inhaled, and Icarus' body jerked as a stream of blue chi was forcibly tugged out of his body, twisting through the air towards her mouth.

Panicked and flagging, the rapidly weakening Loki only had one course of action available to save himself. With a motion that was weak and unskilled, Icarus used the last of his strength to lob the spear he held at his attacker. Under normal circumstances, the weapon would have never made it to its target with such a throw. Gungnir wasn't just any spear, however, and faithfully found its target as it was enchanted to do, lodging deep into Bo's gut with a sickening thwack.

At this point, several things occurred simultaneously. Firstly, Icarus collapsed like a stringless marionette doll, drained to unconsciousness. Secondly, the Dark Queen receded, and Bo was returned to the forefront of her own mind with a gasping jolt, clutching painfully at her stomach and falling to her knees. Then, her three companions reacted. Dyson snarled savagely and leaped over to where Icarus lay prone on the floor of his own workshop, yanking his unconscious form upright and cuffing his arms behind him with little gentleness before patting the man down for any concealed weapons. Hnoss and Tamsin rushed to Bo's side.

"Bo!" Tamsin cried out, skidding to her knees just before the brunette and using her uninjured arm to steady her. Her expression was anguished.

Reeling from the shock of both the pain of the injury as well as the sudden dissociative episode and influx of chi, Bo just blinked at her slowly at first. But she soon collected herself. She knew this face. She knew that voice. Even wounded gravely as she was, Bo suddenly felt completely safe. "Tamsin," she acknowledged, her lips twitching up in a weak smile. "Found the Gungnir."

This earned her a tear-choked laugh and a gentle squeeze from the blonde, who made sure to hold Bo's body very still, so she wouldn't jostle the spear and damage herself further. "I'll heal you in just a sec, Ysabeau," she promised earnestly. "Just hang in there. Just hang on."

Hnoss, meanwhile, had begun assessing the area in which Gungnir was embedded in the succubus' flesh. "It hasn't gone all the way through, but she's losing blood fast" she informed her sister. "I'm going to have to pull it out if she's going to heal. Lay her down."

Tamsin obeyed, reaching around Bo's torso and pressing her good hand between her shoulder blades. Bo leaned trustingly back into Tamsin's strong hold -feeling rapidly more faint from blood loss with each passing moment- and sighed in appreciation as the Valkyrie slowly lowered her backwards until she was laying face-up on the floor. Hnoss had carefully guided the shaft of the spear along with the motion until it stood straight up in the air. Despite her best efforts, it had hurt, and Bo couldn't help but feel bad about how tightly she was squeezing Tamsin's thigh. Had Tamsin not been wearing her chainmail skirt, Bo was very certain her nails would have broken skin. As it was, the woman would most certainly bruise.

With a precision borne of centuries of practical experience with battle wounds, Tamsin moved her hand to the red-slicked stab wound in Bo's stomach, positioning herself to apply pressure the moment the spear was pulled free.

"Ready, Gersemi?" Hnoss asked.

Tamsin nodded sharply, her features grim. Bo knew Tamsin could see how close she was to losing consciousness, and knew she was understandably worried. "Do it, Hnoss."

And Hnoss did. With one swift, economical motion, the Valkyrie pulled Gungnir from Bo's body in a shower of red and stepped back as Tamsin leaned forwards, putting heavy pressure on the gaping wound left behind in an effort to stem the growing pool of blood beneath the succubus' body. Agonized, Bo screamed hoarsely and arched her back. She was forced into stillness by Tamsin's hand and her commanding voice, even as the blonde crushed her lips to Bo's with an urgency Bo hadn't experienced before in any of their previous kisses. "Feed, Bo."

Bo obeyed without a second thought. Her eyes flashed blue as she immediately began pulling long and fiercely at Tamsin's life energy -to the point where she knew the experience was probably very painful for the Valkyrie. Still, the pressure on her stomach from Tamsin's hand didn't falter as she lost herself in the overwhelming sensation of winter and blackberry and something that tasted like loyalty as her body slowly knitted itself back together. Tamsin tasted like things Bo didn't understand, but wanted to, someday. Like sorrow and triumph, and blood, and a thousand years of history, and the saltiness of sex and the bitterness of being alone, and the short bursts of joy afforded by something that tasted like love; and she happily drowned in the rushing flavor of Tamsin's essence, with each passing moment affording her more and more clarity of mind.

Finally -only when Bo felt Tamsin's grip on her side slackening as she finally felt the negative effects of losing so much chi so quickly- Bo ended the flow of chi with a sweet, thankful kiss on soft lips that lasted for a few heartbeats before she pulled away in full and opened her eyes. The Valkyrie was hovering half-bent over Bo's prone body, looking back at her intently with wide, worried green eyes. Her beautiful features were pinched with exhaustion and acute anxiety that melted away like snow in spring the moment Bo gazed up at her and gave her the biggest smile she could manage. "Have I told you how good you taste?" Bo teased her.

Tamsin laughed with such relief that the sound almost came out as more of a sob than anything else. "Yeah, succulette," she replied, reaching up and brushing disbelieving fingertips over Bo's cheekbones. Bo leaned into her hand with a shaky sigh. Tamsin's arm was drenched in blood up to her elbow and the gentle touch left a few red streaks behind on Bo's cheek, but neither of them really noticed or cared. "Maybe once or twice."


	9. Protection

If there was one thing today that Bo was grateful for, it was for the fact that exiting the Labyrinth turned out to be a lot easier than entering it. Despite nearly sucking Tamsin dry, she was still heavily bruised about her middle. (Though thankfully, she was carrying a bloodied spear that could also conveniently double as a walking stick.) For her part, Tamsin with her broken arm was undoubtedly weak and woozy -sluggish in her movements no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Neither of them were really in the right shape to fight their way back through a horde of minotaurs and crocotta, and this was very apparent as Hnoss helped the both of them back to their feet post-healing.

Dyson -bless his wolfy heart- could clearly see this, and took action.

"Wake up, Loki," the man growled from his place by Icarus' cuffed body, flipping him onto his back and backhanding him across the face.

Moaning in pain, Icarus slowly returned to consciousness. "Wh-what?" he choked, blinking blearily before immediately snapping his mouth closed again once he realized his position, eyes wide and terrified.

Dyson gave him a feral smile. "Two options," he told the man succinctly. "One. You tell us how to get out of here without going through the Labyrinth again, and I don't kill you. Two. You don't tell us how to get out of here without going through the Labyrinth again, so we go out through the Labyrinth again and take you with us, and you can pray that the minotaurs kill you before they start eating you. Your choice."

Needless to say that Icarus -while an intelligent man- wasn't exactly a brave one, and quickly capitulated to the first option. Bo wasn't really surprised that there was a hidden passage in the center of the Labyrinth that led to the outside world and back, as she really didn't see the wayward Loki as the minotaur-slaying type. Though it was a little irksome that exiting this deathtrap was as easy as opening the door to what looked to be a linen closet on the second floor and stepping through. (Because really?) The portal took them right back to where they'd started on the hillside by the ocean with the stone archway and human skull on a stake, and from there, they were able to teleport back to the Fae travel agent that had sent them there.

The walk out to the car was so normal and uneventful, it almost felt like a dream. In any other circumstances, Bo might have laughed to see the four of them looking like extras from a scene in 300 with Dyson dragging along their average-Joe-looking prisoner, just walking out into the parking lot like it was no big deal and piling into the car.

Icarus was shoved none-too-gently into the trunk. Thankfully, the man had the presence of mind not to make a lot of unnecessary noise. He knew he was screwed, and didn't want to make it worse.

Bo, with her aching abdomen, didn't have it in her to feel bad for him.

"Take us to Ryan's place," Bo said from her seat in the back once they'd all loaded into Dyson's car, the first one to speak. "Hnoss can tell you where to go." The Valkyrie nodded her agreement absently.

"It won't take long to let Ryan do whatever it was he wanted to do to the spear," Tamsin pointed out from beside her, her voice hoarse with both weariness and pain. It was the only sign of weakness she allowed to show though, and Bo couldn't help but be a little impressed by that. A sexless feeding to heal a mortal injury like that would have killed a lesser Fae. "We need to figure out what Dyson and I will do with the asshat in the back once you and Hnoss leave for Valhalla."

Bo frowned at this, both unbearably excited at the thought that she could get Kenzi back and petrified to leave Tamsin behind while she travelled to Valhalla with the other twin. She and Tamsin were a team. They'd both gone through so much to see this mission through, and it just felt irrefutably wrong to go on to where Tamsin couldn't follow her. It made Bo feel slightly sick to her stomach, actually.

"We'll drop you and Hnoss off with Ryan," Dyson decided, heedless to Bo's inner turmoil. "Then Tamsin and I will go to the Dal so Lauren can take a look at that arm, and Trick can take Icarus into temporary custody until we figure out what to do with him. When you get back… we'll all meet up at your place, Bo."

Well, there wasn't much wrong with that plan, Bo decided. Except for the fact that Tamsin, as a Fallen Valkyrie, still couldn't enter Valhalla with her. But there wasn't anything she could do to fix that now, so Bo quietly agreed to Dyson's terms. Perhaps, were it only Dyson and Hnoss in the car with her, the ride might have continued on in silence; but Tamsin had become very good at reading Bo in the past few days, and her searching green eyes missed none of the tension that had been working up in Bo's stance. Though she sat slumped with tiredness in her seat, Bo's hands were gripping the Gungnir -which she'd laid lengthwise across her lap- tightly, her knuckles paling from the force of it.

"Bo?" Tamsin murmured, quietly enough that the ambient noise of the road would mask most of her words from the other two up front, though not her tone. With her uninjured hand, she reached out and touched Bo's forearm lightly. "What's wrong?"

"I'm scared," Bo admitted softly. She trusted Tamsin with knowing that.

Her expression earnest, Tamsin moved to squeeze her hand. "You don't have to be," she told her in a wry whisper with a teasing nose scrunch that made them both very aware that Tamsin had already told her this once before. "I've got you."

At this, Bo shot her a sad look. They both knew that wasn't true. Or it wouldn't be, once Bo crossed realms. Tamsin wouldn't be able to help her in Valhalla.

Tamsin's answering expression reminded Bo vividly of the time Tamsin had gotten drunk and climbed into her tub fully clothed before confessing that, to her, Bo was perfect. Pain and awe and regret and affection, all competing for space on her pristine (if blood-smeared) features. "It's true," she insisted. "Here." She took her hand back and used it to pull off her winged helmet, which she dropped at her feet. Tamsin then pulled a small knife from her belt and brought it up to her head, twisting it around a lock of bloody and dirty hair and severing the strands with a flick of her wrist before dropping the knife too. She held the loose lock of blonde hair out to Bo, who -confusedly- accepted it, rolling the shiny strands between her fingers and marveling at the soft texture of Tamsin's hair even after it had spent the day beneath a helmet, collecting sweat and blood and dirt.

"Uh, thanks?" Bo tried, somewhat bewildered. She knew that Valkyrie hair had to be valuable in some way, since Massimo had once tried to take it; but she'd never asked why. In hindsight, perhaps she should have.

Knowing that Bo had no idea what was happening, Tamsin huffed out a light laugh. "Valkyrie hair is useful for a lot of things," she explained, averting her eyes almost shyly as she closed Bo's hand around the offering and gripped Bo's closed fist tightly for a moment before letting go and returning her hand to her lap, where she fiddled with the chain links on her skirt. "But if you just carry it with you, it can stop another Valkyrie from casting doubt on you, and it can give you courage. So even if I'm not in Valhalla with you, I can still protect you Bo, and... maybe... maybe this will help you believe in yourself as much as I do." She raised her ice green eyes back up to stare fixedly at Bo, as if to compound the sentiment further -willing Bo to believe it.

The words hit Bo like a train. But in a good way. Tamsin… no one had ever said such unbelievably wonderful things to her and meant them just as sincerely as Tamsin did. She'd never had someone show such a secret, honest side of themselves to her, and only to her. When Tamsin looked at her like that, Bo just knew she spoke nothing but the truth as she saw it, and that… that could be overwhelming. It was overwhelming to know that to Tamsin, she was perfect. That Tamsin believed wholeheartedly that Bo was capable of going solo to bargain with a god for Kenzi's soul. That she meant enough to Tamsin that the woman would jump in front of a bullet, or a crocotta, or whatever for her and still offer whatever part of herself she could if she thought it would make Bo feel better.

This, here, was why Bo had run from Tamsin before Kenzi's death. This closeness and honesty was so powerful it was terrifying. But now that Bo fully accepted Tamsin into her life -in whatever role she might fall into- all Bo could think was that this gift -this woman- was incredible. Tamsin was incredible. And Bo was absolutely certain that Tamsin would give her everything she had to give if Bo only asked for it, and not once would she ask for anything in return.

It was a little confusing, because Bo had never known love to be something so freely given before, and yet… with the way Tamsin looked at her, and the way Bo felt deeper and deeper for the woman with each passing day, what else could it be? And it was amazing, because for once, Bo didn't' feel burdened by her feelings for someone else... because Tamsin saw her for exactly the person she was, and cared about her without any expectation of reciprocation. Bo felt seen. She felt free.

Bo wasn't sure when or how it would happen, but the succubus swore to herself in that moment that -in some unexpected time or place- Tamsin was so getting laid for this.

Unfortunately though, now wasn't the time or place for that.

Instead Bo practically flew forwards at Tamsin the best she could, given her seatbelt, and pressed their foreheads together tenderly, her free hand gripping desperately at the back of the Valkyrie's neck. Tamsin didn't resist this closeness, though she did briefly stiffen in surprise.

"When Kenzi and I get back, we're all three of us going to have a giant sleepover in my bed," Bo promised, voice thick, as tears leaked from her closed eyes and ran down her nose. She wasn't sure if she was upset over their impending separation, or just tired. Maybe both. "And tomorrow, we're going to marathon bad horror flicks all day and go through like, twenty bags of popcorn. And M&Ms. And I'll buy you those stupid pastry things that you like from the corner store that you always pig out on and Kenzi will make us all take shots and you can kick my ass in Mario Kart into infinity and Kenzi can kick yours, and you can sit on the floor for hours while Kenzi brushes your hair just like you used to and then you can show me whatever you do to make your nails so fucking impeccable all the time because you totally just fought your way through the Labyrinth and I'd bet good money you don't even have a chip under those gloves right now."

Laughing lightly, Tamsin returned the gesture and gripped at Bo's shoulder, leaving their foreheads connected, despite the blood from Tamsin's head wound smearing between them. "I'll hold you to that, succulette," she promised. "You'll be alright. You'll have Hnoss with you the whole time."

At this reassurance, Bo just hummed noncommittally, closing her eyes and choosing to simply enjoy their temporary closeness. Hnoss… Bo liked her, but she wasn't sure if the Valkyrie had made up her mind about whether or not she liked Bo yet. In some respects, Hnoss treated her like a friend; but at other times she seemed a bit hostile, especially when it came to Bo's friendship with her sister. She had no doubt that Hnoss would prove to be an excellent protector in Tamsin's absence -if only because Bo was fairly sure Tamsin had already threatened some extremely creative revenge if Hnoss allowed one hair on her head to be harmed- but Bo wasn't sure if Hnoss had any personal investment beyond that. Not that it was a requirement, of course, but Bo had never liked going into a dangerous situation without a close friend to watch her back. And... as lovely as Hnoss was, she wasn't Tamsin.

The car slowed, and Bo reluctantly pulled away, preparing herself for departure.

In the front, Hnoss was pointedly looking out the window. Dyson shifted into park and turned around to face both Bo and the younger twin. "This is your stop, ladies," he announced quietly, eyes expressive with both hope and worry. "Good luck. Bring Kenzi home."

Smiling weakly, Bo renewed her grip on the Gungnir. "Thanks, D," she said. Not having any words for Tamsin, who was watching her with stony neutrality, Bo just reached out and gave the blonde's leg a quick squeeze just above the knee before she ducked out of the car, Hnoss on her heels. Almost immediately, Dyson pulled away down the road, leaving them alone.

Bo threw the fully armored Valkyrie at her side a cautious glance. "Thank you for doing this," she said.

Hnoss met her eyes evenly. "Don't thank me," she instructed firmly. "Like I said- I care about Tamsin. This is important to her."

Not knowing how exactly to respond to that, Bo simply nodded and started walking towards the familiar structure that housed Ryan's workshop. She knew that Hnoss would follow. Entering the building, however, induced a strange sense of deja vu within her. It seemed like weeks ago that she'd last been here, despite the fact that they'd visited only yesterday. Maybe it was the fact that she was exhausted and sore, or maybe it was the surreal knowledge that she was only minutes away from visiting Valhalla for the first time, but Bo felt oddly detached from the situation. The setting -eerily similar to Icarus' workshop, in which she'd so recently been stabbed- certainly didn't help in the least.

"Hey, you're alive!" came an enthusiastic exclamation from the side. Bo jumped violently, spinning in place to face the threat, and Hnoss drew her sword so fast that the motion almost seemed like a blur.

Perhaps they hadn't quite relaxed out of the battle-ready tenseness of the Labyrinth just yet.

Eyes wide, Ryan held his hands up in a placating gesture, half-ducked behind a pile of what appeared to be discarded tires. Dressed in his trademarked combination of expensive dress pants and a collared shirt unbuttoned rakishly at the throat, the Loki's appearance was downright impeccable compared to their own rather… battle-worn looks. It was almost comical, Bo thought idly. Especially Ryan's 'don't-kill-me' face, which was directed almost solely at a snarling Hnoss.

Bo relaxed slightly at the sight of him, and Hnoss sheathed her weapon, rolling her eyes heavily. "Hi Ryan," Bo greeted somewhat tightly. "We're here to fulfill our end of the bargain. We're in a bit of a hurry though, so if you could fit this in within ten minutes, that'd be great."

Catching sight of the spear Bo was carrying, Ryan's eyes alit with a greedy gleam of excitement. "No problem," he promised, springing up from his place and walking over. He paused as Bo handed him the legendary weapon, tilting his head to the side curiously as he eyed her. "You're covered in blood. I take it there was maiming?"

Bo smiled wryly. "Let's just say that I can personally assure you that that spear works as advertised."

Ryan's eyes widened, and he eyed the dried blood on the spearhead with a new wariness. "I'll be very sure not to nick myself with this until I clean it then," he drawled.

"That's probably a good idea," Bo responded, slapping the Navigator back into its creator's free hand. She then smiled sweetly. "Nine minutes."

Ryan rushed off deeper into his workshop. Bo and Hnoss watched him work impassively, their poses -crossed arms and cocked hips- identical as they did so. The Loki wiped the weapon down, took multiple photos of the rune work on the spearhead from every angle, and sprayed a pink foam from a can all over it that hardened into a mold, which he cracked off with a tiny silver chisel. The speed with which he worked was admittedly impressive. The dark-haired man passed the Gungnir back to Bo with a rakish smile well within his time limit, and Bo accepted it with a tired smile.

"Thanks, love," he told her cheerfully. "A pleasure doing business with you. Have fun with the Allfather, won't you?"

Bo smiled slightly bitterly. "I will," she promised. "See you around, Ryan." With that, she turned on heel and exited the building, Hnoss silent at her side.

"Now what?" Bo asked the Valkyrie, whose helmeted face was angled towards the horizon. The sun was just beginning its descent and brushing against the skyline.

For a moment, Hnoss didn't speak. Then, "We go," she said simply, turning to face her. The blonde's posture was hard and unyielding. Dressed in her full battle regalia, spattered with dried gore, and with hard ice green eyes that were all at once comfortingly familiar and completely alien, Hnoss cut a figure that was unsettlingly foreign to Bo. Reminiscent of someone that Bo held very close to her heart, but undoubtedly an ancient and cold and slightly intimidating stranger.

"Here? Now?" Bo questioned, wide-eyed, as she gripped the shaft of the Gungnir tighter in her hands.

"Yes now, and yes here," Hnoss confirmed. "I'll be able to bring us back near enough to your place on the return trip. We aren't that far away. Ready?"

Taking a steadying breath, Bo nodded. "Ready."

It was with a sort of morbid fascination that Bo watched Hnoss unveil her true face, her features hollowing and darkening in that disconcertingly familiar manner that colored Bo's impressions of just about everything Hnoss did. Because Bo's eyes were telling her that this was her Tamsin, but her heart knew better than that; and it was just weird. Hnoss even did the same little grunt of discomfort and stiff roll of her shoulders as her sister did when she unfurled her wings.

But Hnoss' wings… they were probably the one thing about her that wasn't identical to Tamsin.

Objectively, the Valkyrie's wings were beautiful. Pure, downy white. Almost pearlescent. Like an angel's. Still, Bo frowned at the sight of them. They just seemed… wrong, somehow. But then again, Bo was very much used to Tamsin's body, and Bo had never seen Tamsin's wings like this. (Though presumably, they had been, at some point.) Even when Tamsin had still been Lil' T -going full Valkyrie not to protect herself, but Bo, from Massimo- her white feathers had been speckled through with tones of brown and black. And sometime after that, in that awkward, nebulous period between Tamsin's return and Kenzi's death, Tamsin had Fallen; and her wings had darkened accordingly. Looking at Hnoss now, Bo felt like she was finally seeing what Tamsin used to be -and perhaps what she should have been now, had the Valkyrie not encountered their family and shortened her own lifespan through some secretive Valkyrie custom for repudiating Odin. The sensation was bittersweet. Because Tamsin was just so beautiful. And even though any mention of the Fall made Tamsin's eyes brim with internal agony that she covered up with false bravado, Bo knew very well that the new, Fallen Tamsin was just... more than the Tamsin that had existed before, with her pure white wings and years and years of loneliness. Bo knew that whatever the price Tamsin was paying for Falling right now, that the Valkyrie didn't regret that choice. But it was just… odd to see the evidence of her Fall so readily, in the sight of a normal Valkyrie's wings. Perhaps it should have been painful to see this and know it was something Tamsin had lost, Bo reflected; but Bo didn't know enough about Falling to pass judgement either way.

Wordlessly, Hnoss held out her hand, and Bo didn't hesitate to take it, gripping firmly as the Valkyrie stepped right into her personal space, her wings arching behind her. One heartbeat. Then two. And then Hnoss stretched her wings around both of their bodies as if they were in an embrace, and the ground dropped away from beneath Bo's feet as they were abruptly sucked into the void between worlds.


End file.
